The Silent Dead Read online

  The place is conspicuous in daylight, but at night, especially later, when it’s even darker, it’s actually pretty well hidden. Let’s see. We’ve got a T-junction.… We’ve got a body, a T-junction, a hedge, a fence, and a pond.

  “… I can hardly believe it, Reiko. Don’t tell me you’re as crazy about me as…”

  Ah! I feel it coming. I’m almost there. It’ll come. I just need to stay here a bit longer, then the memory will surface.

  “… Do you remember? I was so thrilled…”

  Goddammit, won’t that Ioka guy ever shut up?—What the heck is it? The thing about the body that bugged me?

  “… Perhaps we were just meant to be. How about a pinkie promise?”

  That was it! The big incision. The big incision in the belly. The shallow cuts from the glass were about inflicting pain. The cut to the throat was to finish him off. So what about the abdomen? What the hell was that incision for?

  “… Our fates are joined by a crimson thread.… No, it’s more like yarn.… No, no, it’s got to be thicker and sturdier. More like a rope…”

  What were they planning to do after slicing open the abdomen and dumping the body here? What if she flipped her viewpoint 180 degrees? What difference would it have made if they’d dumped the body here without slicing it open?

  “… You felt it too? That destiny brought us together at the end of last year? They transferred me not once, but twice. Still we met again, right here. It was meant to be…”

  Why inflict further injury on the body after death? What was the point?

  “… You’re trying to tell me that we should be together?”

  Postmortem injury. Why the postmortem injury?

  “Reiko, darling.”

  Postmortem injury. Why the postmortem injury?

  “You feel the same about me, Reiko.”

  Postmortem injury. Postmortem injury. Postmortem injury. WHY THE POSTMORTEM INJURY?

  “Reiko, kiss me.”

  Got it! Way to go, girl!

  “Kiss me now.”

  “Will you shut your stupid mouth!” Reiko gave Ioka a mighty slap on the cheek. “What have you been burbling about all this time?”

  Ioka’s knees gave way. He sank to the ground.

  “Burbling? That’s horrible. Look, I can understand if my telling you how I feel embarrasses you.”

  “Believe me, I couldn’t care less. I’ve figured this thing out. Now I know.”

  “You mean how deeply I love you?” Ioka bit his thumb nervously.

  “That’s something I’m happy never to find out about. No, what I’ve figured out is why they sliced open the abdomen and dumped the body here.”

  “Reiko baby, don’t tell me that’s what you were thinking about all this time?”

  She smacked him on the top of his head. “Don’t you ‘baby’ me, you smart-ass. What the heck else should I be thinking about when I’m on the job?”

  “Your future with me?”

  She smacked him again. “Stop it. We need to get going. We’re late for the evening meeting as it is.”

  Reiko turned round and set off. Ioka dashed after her.

  She was on the dark lane beside the pond. This time, the fence was on her right. She noticed a break in it. It led to walkway above the pond, like a jetty but running parallel with the shoreline. Perhaps it’s for fishing, thought Reiko.

  She wandered absentmindedly onto the jetty. It looked about a meter and a half wide. Certainly big enough for the fishermen to put out their chairs with enough room left over for people to walk behind them. It was a good thirty meters from end to end.

  “What’s this? It says something about bait…”

  It was some sort of notice board. Reiko took a flashlight from her purse for a better look. Judging by its location, it had to be for the fishermen. There was a notice from the local district office about putting any leftover bait in the recycling box to be turned into high-grade fertilizer. Reiko’s eye, however, was caught by something else.

  It was a notice that said “Swimming Prohibited” in large red letters, and below that, “Danger: the water here is not suitable for swimming.” It was dated August 10. The issuing authority was the Municipality of Tokyo Environmental Department.

  “What is it, Lieutenant?”

  Ioka was standing next to her, peering at the noticeboard.

  “Tell me, Ioka,” said Reiko. “Is this the kind of place you’d like to go swimming?”

  “No way. It’s far too dirty. Of course, if it came with the chance to see you in a swimsuit, Lieutenant, I might be persuaded.”

  “So you don’t need a ‘Swimming Prohibited’ notice not to swim here.”

  “Here? No way.”

  “So why have they gone to the trouble of putting up this warning, then? And look who issued it. The Tokyo Municipal Government. Do you think there was an accident of some sort?”

  Ioka thought for a few seconds, then smacked his fist into his palm. “It’s … uhm … that … uhm … that … you know … When they test the water and find bacteria or whatever, they forbid people to swim. That’s it, a no-swim advisory.”

  “Bacteria or whatever?” Could it be—?

  Two nodes in Reiko’s brain suddenly connected. The resulting short circuit set off a shower of sparks. A vague shadowy shape was visible in the flickering light.

  It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be.

  Reiko grabbed her cell and called the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office.

  “Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office here. How can we help you?”

  “Hi, this is Reiko Himekawa of TMPD Homicide here. Is Dr. Kunioku there?”

  “Yes, he is. Shall I patch you through?”

  “Please.”

  She waited a moment, then Kunioku came on the line. “Hey, darling, is that you? What’s up?”

  “Actually, doctor, there’s something I need to ask you. Remember the time before last when we had lunch, you told me about that bacteria—what was it called?—something like negligee? Can you give me the name of the person it killed?”

  “Oh, you mean Naegleria fowleri? Strictly speaking, it’s a parasitic amoeba, not a bacteria. The person who died from it? Just give me a minute.”

  Kunioku put the receiver down to go and consult his records.

  “Uh-huh, here we go. The man who died was Yasuyuki Fukazawa, twenty-one years old, a resident of Adachi ward. Why do you need to know?”

  “You also mentioned something about plans for water-quality tests at several locations in Tokyo. Did they manage to pinpoint where exactly Fukazawa picked up his negli-whatever?”

  “Naegleria fowleri. They did the tests, but they couldn’t peg his infection to one specific body of water. I remember something about them finding the parasite in a fishing pond in Katsushika ward. It was the only place in Tokyo they found it. Problem was, fishing wasn’t one of Fukazawa’s hobbies.”

  “Was it the pond at the entrance to Mizumoto Park?”

  “I really don’t know. Water testing’s not my responsibility.”

  “Who was in charge of it?”

  “In charge? The Environmental Guidance Section of the Department of the Environment and the Environmental Hygiene Research Center of Teito University did it together.”

  “Could you provide me with a copy of their report ASAP?”

  “I’m not sure…”

  “I’m begging you, Dr. K. It’s for an investigation I’m working on. There isn’t time to go through official channels.”

  “Okay, I’ll get it to you right away.”

  “Thanks so much. Can you also send over any information on the Fukazawa guy—whatever you’ve got there will be fine. Address it to the Task Force HQ at Kameari police station.”

  “No problem. I’ll fax it over right now.”

  Reiko bowed into her phone and ended the call.

  “What is it, Lieutenant? What’s going on?”

  “You’ll find
out soon enough. Come on. We need to get to that meeting.”

  6

  When their taxi pulled up at the Kameari police station, Reiko and Ioka piled out and dashed up the front stairs. The uniformed officer on guard outside saluted them as they went through the automatic doors and into the lobby. The elevator showed no sign of coming, so they took the stairs to the third floor at a run. They charged down the corridor, shouldered open the door, and barged straight into the evening meeting.

  “Director!” Reiko planted herself in front of the table at the head of the room where the top brass were sitting.

  There had to be more than twenty people present, nearly all the investigators assigned to the case. All eyes were on Reiko. Kitami, the management-track kid with the family connections, looked especially disapproving. Oh, of course an elite brat would never be late, she sneered to herself.

  “Why all the drama?” Hashizume asked. His tone was grumpy, but at least he was giving her the chance to speak.

  “Thank you, Director. There’s something I urgently need to tell you. Can you call a timeout on the meeting?”

  Captain Imaizumi, who was sitting beside Hashizume, scowled at her. “What’s this about, Himekawa? I mean, you come bursting in—”

  “Boss, I’m sorry. But if my hunch is right, this is no ordinary case we’re dealing with. You’ll need to have an emergency executive council meeting to revise the basic parameters of the investigation.”

  “What is it you want to tell us? Spit it out.”

  Reiko turned back to Hashizume. “As I said, sir, I’m happy to tell you in the proper forum. First, you’ve got to suspend this meeting.”

  The rest of the top brass—the station commander, his deputy, and the precinct chief of detectives—stared up at her dumbfounded. Reiko would never have tried anything like this if Wada, the chief of Homicide, had been there. With these guys, though, she felt she could push her luck.

  “Director, please.”

  The higher-ups looked at one another. The chief of detectives’ guy glanced at the head of Major Crimes. He in turn looked at Lieutenant Kitami. Apparently he didn’t like what he saw.

  “You’re quite sure this is going to be worth our while?” Captain Imaizumi’s serious tone told her that he was ready to let her argue her case.

  “One hundred percent, sir.”

  Hashizume, whose arms were crossed tightly on his chest, just groaned. “Listen, Himekawa, if you’re going to do your usual thing of kicking up a ruckus based on nothing more than a hunch or your gut feeling or whatever, maybe you need to take a step back. Think about the bigger picture: this time it’s not just about you. You could get Captain Imaizumi into trouble.”

  Reiko’s eyes darted away from Hashizume to Imaizumi in the seat beside him. The captain gave her a discreet nod.

  She couldn’t help feeling guilty. She knew that Imaizumi’s life would be a great deal easier if she was more like Kusaka, the other lieutenant in Unit 10. Kusaka always built his cases painstakingly and methodically, using physical evidence to bolster any testimony he had secured before sending the whole neat package up to the public prosecutor’s office. Imaizumi, however, kept telling Reiko to do things “her way.” She was just taking him at his word.

  Did she jump to conclusions? Perhaps she did. She liked to think of herself as someone who could instinctively sense the overall contours of a case. It was the only way she knew to prove herself and to earn the respect of her colleagues. If she approached her cases the same way as everybody else, she’d never get the same recognition they did. She’d heard that Imaizumi had been the same when he was a detective: a risk-taker who went with his gut. That was why he had tapped Reiko for Homicide soon after he’d been promoted to a desk job.

  “I think we should listen to what Himekawa has to say, Director,” Imaizumi said with a sigh and a deferential bob of the head.

  “If you say so, I’m okay with it.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Reiko bowed at Hashizume, though the real focus of her gratitude was Imaizumi.

  I’ll get the guy, Captain. I swear I will.

  Hashizume stood up to announce the temporary suspension of the meeting and to order everyone to stand by until it was resumed.

  * * *

  The top brass moved to a smaller room for the meeting of the executive council. Seven people took part. There was the commander, the deputy commander, and the chief of detectives from Kameari police station. From the TMPD, there was Director Hashizume, Captain Imaizumi, and Reiko. The seventh person was Ioka. He stood behind Reiko, brazenly passing himself off as a TMPD officer.

  “Enlighten us, then,” said Hashizume, digging a finger into his ear and not bothering to look at her. “What’s your latest flash of inspiration?”

  Hashizume’s cynicism was understandable. Neither she nor her squad had closed a case for months. Given her recent track record, she was prepared to put up with a few sarcastic jibes when she interrupted a meeting with demands to be heard.

  Reiko stood up. She was now standing shoulder to shoulder with Ioka. “Thank you, sir. I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about the postmortem incision in the victim’s abdomen. I kept asking myself what was the point of it. The perpetrator bashed glass into the victim before severing his carotid artery to kill him. Why bother to make a vertical slit in the abdomen after all that?”

  “You think you’ve got the answer?” growled Hashizume, scratching his forehead.

  Reiko gave an emphatic nod. “Usually, when a perpetrator inflicts postmortem injury on a body, it’s about making the body disappear. Chopping up or burning a body are examples of what I mean. I think we’re looking at the same thing here.”

  “Except that making a slit in the abdomen isn’t much of a vanishing trick.”

  “You’re right. Slicing the abdomen is just the preliminary stage. Like prepping the body for disposal.”

  The men exchanged startled looks. Reiko could see they had no idea where she was going with this.

  “What I’m about to suggest to you is just my own personal hypothesis.” She paused. “I am guessing that the perpetrator intended to dump Kanebara’s body into the pond.”

  The five men shifted uneasily in their seats. Behind her, Ioka swallowed audibly.

  “You all know that gases accumulate inside dead bodies as they decompose. What does that mean? Dump them in the water and all they do is float right back up to the surface. There was a case where a body that had been crammed into a refrigerator and chucked into a lake floated back up to the surface, refrigerator and all. The buoyancy of these decomposition gases is amazing. The gas accumulates in the intestines, inflating them like a balloon. Now, what would happen if you took the precaution of pre-puncturing that balloon? It’s obvious. The intestines wouldn’t inflate, and your body wouldn’t come up to the surface. That, I believe, is the purpose of the incision in the abdomen.”

  Hashizume raised a hand to object. “In that case, why didn’t the perpetrator dump the victim in the pond? There’s nothing to be gained by leaving him sitting on top of the hedge.”

  The question was a valid one.

  “I agree. Clearly, the body being left out like that wasn’t good for the perpetrator. I believe the perpetrator meant for the body to be dumped in the pond, but it wasn’t. My hypothesis is that there were two people involved: one person to transport the body to the pond, and another to dump it in the pond. For some reason, however, the person responsible for dumping the body in the pond failed to do his job. He never even showed up. I am guessing that’s because…” Again, she paused. “The person who was meant to dump the body in the pond was already dead.”

  “What grounds have you got for this hypothesis of yours?” broke in Imaizumi.

  “Let me explain, sir.”

  Hashizume sighed ostentatiously and his shoulders sagged.

  “This is a photocopy of the autopsy report of a man who died in suspicious circumstances one month ago. His name was Yasuyuki Fukazawa and he
was twenty-one years old. He was infected with a parasitic amoeba called Naegleria fowleri. It’s very rare, but is found in freshwater lakes and ponds during the summer months. The amoeba consumed his brain and killed him. The early symptoms of Naegleria fowleri are similar to meningitis, so your average doctor isn’t likely to make the correct diagnosis. Fukazawa died on July 20. In the report, the coroner estimates that he was infected about one week earlier—so roughly July the thirteenth. That was the second Sunday in the month—the same day Kanebara made one of his mysterious disappearances. And the next second Sunday in the month is when he left his home for the last time.”

  Reiko put the autopsy report down on the table.

  “The next question we have to ask is where Yasuyuki Fukazawa got infected with Naegleria fowleri. It’s not one hundred percent, but it looks almost certain to have been the fishing pond near Mizumoto Park. The Tokyo municipal authorities conducted checks on water quality throughout the city. The Mizumoto pond was the only place where they detected Naegleria fowleri. What does that suggest to you? And by the way, I should mention that Fukazawa was on parole and was forbidden to leave Tokyo without special permission. Of course, he could have violated parole and gotten infected somewhere else entirely, but Tokyo seems a whole lot more likely to me. Which all leads me to conclude that on or around July 13, Yasuyuki Fukazawa must have either accidentally fallen into, or deliberately gone swimming in, the fishing pond.”

  Reiko picked up the water-quality test report from the table and opened it to the page about the Mizumoto pond. She then held it up for everyone to see.

  “You’ve all seen the pond. You know it’s not a place where people swim in the summer—or any other time of the year, for that matter. With a sluice gate on one side, two sides banked up with concrete, and on the fourth, a verandalike jetty thing for people to fish from, the place is clearly not designed for swimming. Despite all that, Fukazawa went swimming there. He went into the water and was infected with Naegleria fowleri around July the thirteenth. Which means—”

  Captain Imaizumi sat in silence with his eyes closed. The top three guys from Kameari police station looked disgusted, as if they had bitten into a lemon. The only sound Reiko could hear was the breath going in and out of Ioka’s nose.