"Not the sort of place to find any traces," Mihara commented.
Later, when they were seated side by side on a big rock, away from the scene of the suicides, Mihara said, "Now let me hear what you have on your mind." Wrapped in their overcoats and warmed by the late afternoon sun, they could have been taken for two men quietly basking in the sun.
"The first thing that struck me was the dining car receipt, which was made out to one person," Torigai began. He gave the reason for his suspicion, this time adding his daughter's comment on the matter of love and appetite. "That's why I believe Sayama was alone on that train," he concluded.
Mihara listened attentively. "That is interesting. I'm inclined to agree with you." His eyes were alert. "But aren't there witnesses who saw him board the train with a woman at Tokyo Station?"
"Certainly. But can't we assume that the woman-Otoki I mean-got off the train at some station along the way?"
"Yes, that can be assumed. If she did get off…" Mihara took the notebook from his pocket. "The date on the receipt is the fourteenth, so it would have to be before the Nagoya station where the train arrived at 11:21. Of course, Sayama must have gone to the dining car before it closed at 10:00. So if Otoki did get off, it was either at Atami, which the train left at 8:00, or at Shizuoka, at 9:01."
"Yes, that could be." Torigai nodded soberly. Mihara was putting his own vague thoughts into words.
"Good. Since a great deal of time has passed it's hard to say what we'll be able to find at this point. In any event, I'll have the station and inns checked at Atami and Shizuoka. The movements of a woman alone are sometimes surprisingly easy to follow." Mihara then asked: "Do you have anything else on your mind?"
"Sayama stayed by himself at an inn called Tambaya in Hakata from the fifteenth to the twentieth. The fifteenth is the day he arrived at Hakata from Tokyo." Torigai then related how Sayama had waited at the inn for a telephone call, and how the call had come through at eight o'clock on the night of the twentieth, a woman's voice asking for Sugawara, the name under which Sayama had registered at the inn, and how Sayama had left immediately afterward, and how it was assumed he had committed suicide that same night.
Mihara listened intently. "The fact that the woman knew Sayama's assumed name proves that it was Otoki," he remarked. "The matter of the inn and the false name must have been arranged beforehand."
"I believe so. That clears up one mystery."
"How's that?"
"Till now I had assumed that Sayama and Otoki had arrived together at Hakata and that Otoki had then gone off somewhere alone. After this talk with you, however, I think we are right in believing that Otoki got off somewhere along the way and only showed up later. Otoki must have left the train at Atami or Shizuoka on the fourteenth, letting Sayama proceed by himself, and only arrived at Hakata on the twentieth. Then she telephoned the inn, and since Sayama was awaiting the call, it was undoubtedly prearranged. There was one thing, however, that was not settled beforehand," Torigai added.
"What was that?"
"The time of Otoki's arrival at Hakata. We know that Sayama waited impatiently at the inn day after day for the phone call, so I'm sure the date of her arrival was not set."
Mihara was making an entry in his notebook. When he finished, he showed it to Torigai. "It would look something like this," he explained.
"That's it! That's it exactly!" Torigai exclaimed as he studied the diagram.
"But why did Otoki get off the train at a way station?" Mihara wondered out loud.
That was the question. Torigai had no answer. He had been asking himself the same thing and had come to no conclusion. "I don't understand," he admitted, rubbing his cheek. Mihara folded his arms and stared at the sea, as if trying to find the answer there. Shika Island was barely visible in the distance.
"Mr. Mihara!" Torigai quietly attracted his attention. He had decided to ask the question that had been uppermost in his mind for some time. "Why is the Metropolitan Police Board suddenly interested in this double suicide case?"
Mihara hesitated a moment before replying. He took his cigarettes and silently offered one to Torigai. He flicked open his lighter, lit the cigarette for him, then his own.
"Mr. Torigai, since you've been so helpful I'll tell you," Mihara began. "Kenichi Sayama was an important witness in the X Ministry investigation. Although only an assistant section chief, he was actually in charge and thoroughly familiar with the administrative work of the section. He was therefore an important figure in the case. As a matter of fact, he was closer to being a suspect than a witness. Since the case was still young, we foolishly failed to have him closely watched. Because of this, we let him die." Mihara flicked the ash of his cigarette. "Many people were no doubt greatly relieved when they heard of his death. The further we investigate, the more we find that we would have liked to question him. We really lost a valuable witness. I can't tell you how much we regret it. His death is a serious blow. On the other hand, there are people who are probably dancing with joy at the news. He may have died meaning to protect them, but recently I've become suspicious of his suicide."
"Suspicious?"
"Yes, I'm beginning to suspect that he did not choose to die, that death was forced upon him by someone."
Torigai looked sharply at Mihara. "Is there any evidence of this?"
"Nothing definite. He left no letter and the same is true, I believe, of the woman."
Mihara was right; his suspicions were justified. Torigai had reached the same conclusion and had mentioned these doubts earlier to his chief.
"Moreover," Mihara continued, "in Tokyo we investigated Sayama's private life and could find no connection at all with Otoki."
"What? What did you say?"
"We did learn that Sayama probably had a mistress, but there is no evidence that Otoki was the mistress. As for Otoki, I myself went to the Koyuki Restaurant to talk to the waitresses and I checked her apartment. I found that there was a man in her life. She received phone calls at her home from a man, and she often spent the night away, but I can't identify him. He never came to her apartment, apparently. We are presuming it was Sayama but there is no proof at all that it was."
Torigai found this very strange. Hadn't Sayama and Otoki committed suicide together? "But Mr. Mihara, the waitresses at the Koyuki saw Sayama and Otoki get on the Asakaze. No, there was another person with them, a guest at the Koyuki. Three people therefore saw them. And they died here, together. I saw the scene with my own eyes and there is the evidence of the photographs and the police reports you were shown."
"That's the point!" Mihara looked perplexed for the first time. "Since coming here and seeing the evidence I've accepted the fact of the double suicide. There's no doubt about that. I'm disturbed now to find that the suspicions I have disagree completely with the actual facts."
Torigai was aware that he fully shared Mihara's confusion.
"Shall we go back?" Mihara suggested. They stood up, and walking side by side, returned by the same road.
At the Nishitetsu station Torigai had a sudden thought. "The other Kashii railway station is about five hundred meters from here. I think I have a piece of information that may be worthwhile." He told Mihara about the couples at the two stations on the night of the twentieth and explained how he had paced the distance between the stations and checked the time.
"That is most interesting," Mihara said, his eyes lighting up. "Let me check it myself." The two men walked from one station to the other, at three different speeds, as Torigai had done two days earlier.
"You're right. It takes not more than eight minutes, no matter how slowly you walk," said Mihara, looking at his watch. "Eleven minutes is too long, unless you stop along the way."
"Of course it could have been two different couples."