A Cop's Eyes (8 page)

“No, I've always been at East Ikebukuro.”

This was surprising. Nagamine had assumed that they were
the same generation, but maybe Natsume was much younger than he looked.

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-eight.”

The same age as Nagamine—but serving at the same station until you were thirty-eight was rare.

Sensing his doubt, Natsume explained, “I entered the police academy when I was thirty.”

“Ah … okay.”

“I'd been in the community section, but I was assigned to the detective unit a year ago.”

So the guy was a rookie.

An underwhelming buddy—but all Nagamine had to do was take the initiative in the investigation as usual.

The chiefs came into the assembly hall and the investigation meeting began.

“The victim's name is Ayano Sakurai—twenty-six years old—an office worker at the Ikebukuro branch of a travel agency called Try Travel,” Yabusawa began describing the case.

The cause of death was suffocation by strangulation. Estimated time of death, between seven and ten o'clock the previous evening.

Ayano had been living in that condominium for a year. Since the complex had a gated intercom system, and because they couldn't find her cellphone in her room, it was highly likely that the crime was committed by someone she knew.

The semen from the condom left in the room and the hair left in the bathroom would be submitted for DNA testing.

With a directive to pay particular attention to Ayano's social life, the meeting was adjourned.

As ordered by Yabusawa, Nagamine and Natsume immediately went to the travel agency to gather information from Ayano's
coworkers.

They were shown through to the office, and after a while, the manager of the branch made his appearance.

“To think that … Sakurai would be involved in a case like this,” the manager, who sat across from Nagamine and Natsume, began speaking, barely able to hide his discomposure.

“What sort of woman was Ms. Sakurai?” Nagamine asked.

“A serious one. She performed her work diligently and, of course, was never late or took days off without permission. It hadn't even been a full year since she started, but we could trust her with important work …”

“Do you know what she did before working here?”

“She worked at another travel agency in Iidabashi.”

“So in the same industry. Do you know why she changed jobs?”

“No … I didn't pry that much. Well, she came from the same industry, and we hired her because she would be an immediate asset.”

“We would like to ask you about Ms. Sakurai's social circle …” Nagamine turned the talk to Ayano's friendships and romantic relationships.

The manager, however, answered, “I wouldn't know much about that …” and instead called in the staff in attendance one by one.

“Was there a man she was dating?” Nagamine asked Ayano's coworkers, but every one of them replied that they never really discussed such matters with her.

“Should we go to her old workplace?” he said to Natsume as they exited Try Travel, and together they headed toward Iidabashi.

All Skies Travel was a small company along Mejiro Street in Iidabashi.

“Welcome.”

When they entered the store, there were three employees behind the counter.

“We apologize for coming at a busy time. I am Nagamine from the Metropolitan Police Department.” He showed them his police badge, and they stared at him with wide eyes. “We would like to ask you about Ayano Sakurai, who was employed here previously.”

The woman right in front of him gave a doubtful look and said, “About Ayano?”

“Yes. Actually … Ms. Sakurai was involved in a case last night …”

“A case …” the woman, who was staring at Nagamine, asked anxiously.

“She was murdered,” he informed her.

She was speechless. The next moment, she angrily stood up. “That can't be true!”

“Unfortunately, it is. Someone strangled and murdered her. We are conducting the investigation and have some questions regarding Ms. Sakurai.”

Though flustered, the woman nodded and offered them seats at the counter.

“How long have you known Ms. Sakurai?” Nagamine asked as he sat in the chair.

“We worked together for about two years.”

“Were you close to her outside of the office?”

“While she was still working here, we went out for meals together, sometimes for drinks … but I didn't see her much after she left …”

“Why did she resign?” Nagamine asked, but the woman wasn't forthcoming. She seemed of two minds about telling him.

“Please answer honestly so that we can catch the murderer.”

“She … was being troubled by a stalker,” the woman answered.

“A stalker?”

“Yes … she was being bothered by someone she'd gone out with ages ago. She'd dated him for about a year, but apparently he was really violent … It seemed she'd broken up with him because of that, but even afterwards, he wouldn't stop trying to get in bed with her … He kept visiting her place, and yelling outside, and even came here … Once, he stayed all day over there across the street and just gazed into the store.”

She pointed in Nagamine's direction, so he turned around. Beyond the glass door he could see Mejiro Street.

“Do you know that man's name?”

“I think … Kamiya … I believe it was Kamiya.”

Natsume took down the name.

“Do you know his given name?”

“I'm sorry, I don't know that much … But she quit this place because she couldn't stand being followed by him.”

“And that was one year ago, correct?” Nagamine asked, to which she nodded.

It had also been one year ago that Ayano had moved into her present condominium. Thanks to the man, she must have needed to find a new home, too.

“Do you know this man's workplace or where he lives?”

“I have no idea where he works, but I heard that he lives in Narimasu. She'd been working at a travel agency in Narimasu before here, so I guess they might have met there. ‘I never have luck with men,' she always said.”

“Luck with men …”

“Yes. It seems that it wasn't just that man, all the ones she'd dated were good for nothing, and she wondered if she were somehow to blame … Even when she left this place, she was saying, ‘I'm done with men.' ”

The crime scene seemed to suggest, however, that she wasn't.

“Once she quit, you didn't see her much?”

“I was worried about her in the days after she left, and we
sent each other messages, but we lost touch … Oh, but around two weeks ago, I ran into her in Ikebukuro.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes … and we went into a department store cafe. She seemed very cheerful compared to those days, so I was relieved.”

“What did you talk about? For instance, did she tell you about any man in her life, about friends?”

“She said she had a new boyfriend.”

“What kind of man?” Nagamine leaned forward and asked.

“Umm, she didn't tell me about how they met and all that, but she said he was manly. She gushed about him. ‘He really understands me … He'd protect me with his life … He's the manliest person I've ever met.' ”

If this had been two weeks ago, he was likely Ayano's latest lover.

“But …” The woman paused there.

“But what?”

“Well … When I told her I was happy to hear about it, she said something like … ‘I love him so much I can't stand it, but … maybe it's not meant to be.' ”

Not meant to be—was it perhaps an adulterous relationship?

An affair and break-up gone wrong … Nagamine painted the scenario in his head.

“Would you know the man's name?”

“Now that you ask, right in the middle of our conversation, she took a call from someone she called Kai. I'm not sure if he was the boyfriend … But given how happy she looked talking to him, probably … And now I'll never see her again,” she concluded in a wistful murmur.

Kai—they could be in luck if they could figure out who it was from Ayano's call records.

The car turned left at Kawagoe Way and onto Kanpachi Road.

Having left All Skies Travel, they were headed toward the apartment in Kasugacho, Nerima Ward where Ayano had lived up until a year ago.

Looking out at the familiar streets from the passenger's seat, he sank into gloomy thoughts. Nearly ten years ago, he'd combed through this neighborhood until he was sick and tired of it.

It had fallen prey to a serial assailant who targeted little girls. It was Nagamine's first major case since being assigned to Investigation Section One.

In succession, two girls had been hit in the head with a hammer while playing alone, one of them passing away.

Eyewitness reports indicated that the culprit was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen. Despite a thorough investigation of the neighborhood, he was never apprehended. The case was handed over to an ongoing investigations unit but was probably not one step closer to being solved.

“I don't like this neighborhood much …” he muttered to himself.

“Me neither …”

Nagamine turned toward the driver's seat in response.

“Up until ten years ago, I lived near here.”

Natsume's profile, as the man stared straight ahead and drove, sent a certain image flitting across his mind.

He'd seen it on TV at the precinct station. The victim's father, tears in his eyes, desperately pleading to the culprit—

One of the victims was called Emi Natsume.

Natsume—could the person next to him possibly be the victim's father from back then?

But he'd never heard that the victim's father was on the force. No, he was sure he'd been told that the father worked at a juvenile detention center.

I entered the police academy when I was thirty
—

What, had he joined because of that case?

His gaze fixed on Natsume's profile, Nagamine was unable to find his next words.

At Ayano's old apartment, they interviewed her former next-door neighbor.

“True … A weird fellow did keep coming by. He'd kick the door and shout in the middle of the night … a real nuisance,” the male resident said with a fed-up look.

“Have you seen that man since she left?”

“Yeah, I've seen him around a number of times even afterwards.”

“Even after she moved away?”

“He was probably looking for her friend.”

“Her friend?”

“Yeah. Just the other day too, right by that convenience store, I saw her being grilled by that guy. It was like she was getting threatened for something, and I felt bad for her.” His insouciant tone contradicted his professed sympathy.

“What's this friend like?”

“She didn't try to stand out, little or no makeup … Seemed to come here often, too, when my neighbor was still living here. I bet this friend was being harassed because he thought she knew the woman's new address. But a guy who threatens a weak girl, he's scum, yeah?”

In that case, he definitely should have called the police or tried to help her, but Nagamine let that thought go unvoiced.

“Does this woman live close by?”

“I would think so. I've seen her a few other times, too … Strange thing is, she has a different hairstyle every time I spot her. When I saw her here, she had a short haircut, but other times she had long black hair.”

“It must be a wig.”

“That must be it … She was pretty tall and slim, and I thought
she might actually be a model.”

That woman might know about Ayano's latest boyfriend, too.

“Thank you very much.”

Leaving the apartment, he went back to the car with Natsume. His wristwatch said that it was past six in the evening. “Should we go back to the station?” he suggested, but when he got into the car, Natsume, who was in the driver's seat, had a despondent look on his face.

“What's wrong?” Nagamine asked.

“Well … There's one point that's bothering me.”

“What?”

“I was wondering, if she was so scared of Kamiya, why did she only move as far away as Ikebukuro? If Narimasu is where Kamiya lives, wouldn't he show up in Ikebukuro often enough? They might actually run into each other. Too bad she didn't move farther away.”

He had a point, but—“I don't see how that's relevant to this case.”

Natsume didn't look convinced but nodded slightly and turned the key.

Several new pieces of information were aired in the evening investigation meeting.

Ayano had changed her cellphone a year ago, and her new one didn't have the name Kamiya in its call record. The meeting ended after it was decided that several investigators including Nagamine would contact the people in the call record the next day.

“Your daughter …” he called out to Natsume's back as the man was leaving the assembly hall.

Natsume turned around and stared curiously at Nagamine.

“I always felt like we'd met somewhere before, but I only realized earlier today. Natsume … You're the victim's father from
that case, aren't you.”

“My daughter is still in the hospital.”

Still in the hospital …

“She hasn't regained consciousness since then.”

So she was a vegetable. He couldn't find the right words.

“By any chance, were you part of the investigation for that case?”

“Yeah … it was a humiliating experience.”

“You mean ‘is'.”

For the victims' families, the case would never slip into the past. Natsume's eyes said as much.

“Right … it's still possible.”

While he could no longer conduct an investigation himself, it wasn't as though no means for catching the culprit existed.