“About what time did you go to sleep?”
“Around 10.30, I think.”
They hadn’t got much out of Sasaki, and Togai wasn’t any more helpful. The only difference was that he was able to be even clearer about his relationship with Ueda—he’d never spoken to him in his life.
“That was the son of Shunsaku Togai, the politician,” said Ozaki, when Togai had left.
“Whoa! That Togai!”
“A Tokyo University student? Must have brains, that one,” said Okuma.
“Those two, Sasaki and Togai, are both after Eiko Hamamoto.”
“As I see it, Togai’s only advantage is that he’s from a famous family.”
“Sad to say, but I agree.”
“Call the Kikuoka Bearings group next. Now is there anything I should be aware of before we begin?”
“Well, we already know that Kikuoka is having an affair with his secretary, Kumi Aikura. Apart from that, Kanai has been Kikuoka’s personal doormat and brown-noser for the past decade and more, and has only recently been promoted to a managerial position.”
“What’s the relationship between Kikuoka Bearings and Hama Diesel?”
“Back in 1958 when Kikuoka Bearings was just a fledgling company, Kikuoka managed to get into bed with Hama Diesel. His company owes everything to Hamamoto. Around half of all the ball bearings used in Hama Diesel’s tractor-trailers are made by Kikuoka Bearings.”
“So the two companies are affiliated?”
“Right. Anyway, that’s why they were invited.”
“Have they had any kind of dispute or falling-out recently?”
“Nothing at all like that. Both companies are doing extremely well, particularly their export business.”
“Got it. And there was nothing going on between Kumi Aikura and Ueda, the chauffeur?”
“Nothing at all that we can find. Ueda seems to have been the most quiet, unassuming man. Kikuoka’s the nosy type, and jealous to boot. A gold-digger mistress like that one is hardly going to risk it all for someone like Ueda.”
But there turned out to be little difference between the Kikuoka Bearings contingent and Sasaki or Togai. Kumi Aikura had encountered Ueda through work, but they’d had next to no direct contact and almost no conversation. The detectives were able to check this information in a casual way with the others and decided it was most likely the truth.
Mr and Mrs Kanai had had the same experience as Kumi. The biggest surprise for the officers was that Eikichi Kikuoka himself made the same claim. The only things he seemed to know about Ueda were that he was unmarried, rarely spoke, had no brothers or sisters, and his father was deceased. In other words, he was the only child of a single mother from Moriguchi near Osaka. And that was about it. Kikuoka had invited Ueda to have a drink with him a couple of times, but they had no kind of relationship to speak of.
Besides the three questions they’d asked Sasaki and Togai, the police had added an extra one—Who do you think might have wanted to kill Ueda?—but it was hopeless. They all said the same thing: they had no idea.
“Mr Kanai, what time was it when you went running to Room 1?”
“I heard Ms Aikura screaming just after 1.05 a.m. and stayed in bed for about ten minutes I think, not sure what to do.”
“Did you hear a man’s voice scream too?”
“Yes, well…”
“Did you look out of the window at all?”
“No.”
“When did you finally get back to your room?”
“Just before 2 a.m.”
“And you had to make a round trip through the salon to do that?”
“Yes, of course.”
“On your way there or back did you meet anyone, or see anything strange?”
“No, nothing.”
And so they only got one single piece of useful information—namely that if Kanai was telling the truth, around 1.15 a.m., and again around 1.50 a.m., there were no suspicious characters along the route connecting Room 9 with Room 1.
At any rate, none of the people interviewed had anything that constituted a solid alibi. All of them had retired to their respective rooms around 9.30, changed into pyjamas, and then never once after that ventured out into the corridor (with the exception of Michio Kanai, of course). After dinner, all of the guests seemed to have shut themselves away in their rooms like bears preparing to hibernate for the winter.
With each room in the mansion having its own en suite bathroom, this behaviour was no different from that of guests at a hotel, but to the three police officers who hadn’t been brought up in a life of luxury, it was a little hard to imagine. At night, back at the hall of residence at the police academy, there were more people hanging out in the corridors than in their own rooms. They decided to ask the next person, Yoshihiko Hamamoto, the reason for this.
“You said the same things as everyone else: no one seems to have ever exchanged words with Mr Ueda; no one set foot outside their rooms after dinner; no one heard anything; no one saw anything. Therefore, nobody has an alibi. Why did everyone shut themselves away and never come out again?”
“I think… maybe it was because everyone brought pyjamas with them but…”
“Yes? Go on.”
“There weren’t any robes or dressing gowns.”
The detectives all nodded knowingly, but in fact they didn’t get anything from Yoshihiko’s reply other than to wonder what kind of a house they had found themselves in.
And what on earth were they going to do that night without so much as a pair of pyjamas?
The next person they called was Eiko Hamamoto. Ushikoshi repeated their three questions.
“I’m sorry but I don’t have an alibi. If you want to know where I was between just after 1 and just before 2 in the morning, then I was in Room 1 with my father, Kumi Aikura and Mr Kanai. I’m afraid I can’t answer for the half-hour after midnight.”
“Hmm. But finally we’ve found someone besides Mr Kanai who actually left their room. It looks like you had a dressing gown.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’m sorry, private joke. Were you close to Kazuya Ueda?”
“I hardly spoke to him.”
“Of course not. You wouldn’t have.”
“Remind me of your other question.”
“Did you see anyone behaving suspiciously or hear anything strange?”
“No, I didn’t see anything.”
“Hmm. So once you went to bed you never left your room until you heard Kumi Aikura’s screams and went to the next room?”
“No… Actually, yes, to be accurate I did leave my room one other time.”
“Oh, yes?”
“It was so cold I woke up. I opened my door to check if the drawbridge was completely up or not.”
“And was it?”
“No. As I’d guessed, it wasn’t properly shut.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Yes, occasionally. Sometimes it’s difficult to close from the tower side.”
“And so you closed it?”
“Yes.”
“What time was that?”
“I’m not sure… Maybe about twenty or thirty minutes before I heard Ms Aikura scream… I didn’t check my watch.”
“So it was around 12.30?”
“Yes, I suppose it was. But it might have been later.”
“Could you tell us exactly what happened when you heard Ms Aikura screaming?”
“I was in bed but awake for the reason I just explained. Then I heard screaming. Really loud screaming. So, wondering what was going on, I tried to listen, and then I heard what sounded like a man’s yell. Then I got out of bed, opened my window and looked outside.”
“Did you see anyone, or anything?”