Pathway to Japanese Literature

Gorilla

Eikawa Hatsuko returned from Café Dragon to her apartment at roughly five in the morning.

She took out the master key from her handbag and opened the door—whereupon a chilly morning breeze brushed her face—and when she thought Huh? and looked around, she saw that the window facing the street stood open.

"I’m sure I closed it when I left—" she thought while scanning the room, but nothing seemed amiss.

Hatsuko closed the window and lowered the blinds; intending to get some proper sleep now, she tried opening the closet door only to find it stuck—was something blocking it? Then when she yanked hard—thud! With a heavy sound echoing through the room, a large bundle tumbled out alongside red bedding.

She recoiled sharply. When she looked, it was a large blue furoshiki bundle dyed with an arabesque pattern. Who would put something like this in the closet? What could be inside? Hatsuko's eyes glittered with curiosity as she gingerly touched the furoshiki's surface through the cloth, but she couldn't tell—too firm to be bedding. Pressing her right eye against a torn edge to peer inside, she let out a blood-curdling scream, rushed into the hallway, and stumbled a few frantic steps before collapsing unconscious.

At the unusual noise, doors throughout the building flew open all at once, and men and women in nightclothes emerged in a clamor, surrounding her.

By the time the manager rushed over, Hatsuko had already regained consciousness, but she continued pointing fearfully toward her room, her lips trembling uncontrollably, unable to form words.

“What happened?” the manager asked, less to Hatsuko and more as if seeking an explanation from the surrounding people.

At that moment, a fellow dancer came over with a poppy seed-sized pill resting on her palm and a cup in one hand,

“Hatsu-chan, pull yourself together. Come on, take these Rokushingan pills—calm yourself down—and tell us all what happened,” she said, holding the cup to Hatsuko’s lips.

Hatsuko gulped audibly and drank the water.

"You back with us now?"

She silently nodded.
After some time, she let out a deep sigh and,

"Oh, it was terrifying!" she muttered.

"What happened? What's got you so scared?"

Hatsuko, gripping the dancer’s hands, rose unsteadily to her feet and spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Um... there’s something strange inside the furoshiki bundle. Quickly—open it and look!”

With the manager leading the way, everyone entered her room.
Sure enough, the blue furoshiki bundle lay tossed in the center of the room.

“Isn’t this Ms. Eikawa’s belongings?”

Hatsuko shook her head vehemently,

“It’s not mine!”
“While I was out, someone put it in the closet! Quickly—someone take a look inside!”

As urged, the manager pressed his eye against the torn edge first, but—

“Ah!” he exclaimed in shock,

“There’s a person—a person inside!”
“Oh! This is terrible!”

At that exclamation, the group of young women fled.
Those who stayed out of morbid curiosity took turns peering into the furoshiki bundle, their faces paling each time they looked.

“There’s a head—but you can’t see the face.”

“Man or woman? —Short hair.”

“Hmm, looks like a real beauty!”

“Let’s open it up and see.”

As they were noisily clamoring around the bundle, a twenty-seven or twenty-eight-year-old young man entered and restrained them,

“No good, no good! You mustn’t touch it.
You mustn’t lay a hand on it until the police arrive—”
Upon looking, it turned out to be one of the lodgers—Yamamoto Keiichi, a well-regarded private detective who was Hatsuko’s patron.
He had just returned from a trip; no sooner had he stepped through the entrance than this commotion erupted.

“Could someone please hurry—go to the police box and report this?”

A student in pajamas dashed off to the police box.

Upon receiving the emergency report, a section chief from the Metropolitan Police Department rushed to the scene accompanied by young ace investigator Inspector Sugimura. After hearing the full account from Yamamoto Keiichi, who was present there, the chief turned to Sugimura and said:
“You there—kindly open the furoshiki bundle.”

The blue furoshiki bundle had its four corners gathered and was securely bound with a single thick hemp rope. Sugimura initially tried to cut the rope with a knife but stopped for reasons unknown. Instead, he meticulously examined the knots and took a full ten minutes to finally untie them. A bloodied man appeared from within. With limbs drawn in and curled face down—when they lifted the body, a dagger had been thrust deep into the chest with a sickening crunch. The left hand, bent at the wrist, clutched a peach-colored ribbon tightly against the chest as though embracing it; the ribbon measured over a foot long and was made of satin.

Sugimura took the head, Yamamoto the feet, and together they lifted the corpse and laid it atop the red yuzen-dyed futon.
It was a man of twenty-five or twenty-six with a distinctly ugly face.

“Ah! Gorilla—”

With a small scream, Hatsuko staggered and began to collapse, sinking her teeth into the manager’s arm.
All eyes converged on her.

“Do you know this man?” asked the manager.
Hatsuko turned deathly pale, turning her face away in fear as she answered in a trembling voice.

“I do know him! This man—he’s a driver for Swallow Taxi who goes by the nickname Gorilla. He’s called Mr. Yoshikawa.”

The owner of Swallow Taxi was immediately summoned; he took one look and confirmed it was indeed Yoshikawa.

The fatal wound was undoubtedly this single stab to the heart, and the police doctor stated that several hours had passed since death.

The corpse was to undergo autopsy, and Hatsuko was taken from the scene to Metropolitan Police Headquarters as a suspect.
As he watched her retreating figure, Yamamoto’s face bore an anxious expression; he vowed in his heart to thoroughly investigate the case and clear her of suspicion.

Actress Eikawa Yuriko

Hatsuko underwent harsh interrogation but insisted she had no connection whatsoever to driver Yoshikawa’s murder.
She was agitated,
“If you suspect me that much, then ask Mr. Yamamoto.
He knows who I truly am—I’m not some brazen woman who could commit such evil deeds,” she said bitterly.
Sugimura softened his tone slightly.

“How do you know Yoshikawa?”

After a moment’s hesitation,

“My younger sister lived with that man for a brief spell.”
“It was forced—she was made to cohabit with him against her will—”

“Was he her husband?”

“Oh, no—he wasn’t her husband!”

“What does your sister do? So she’s a café girl after all, eh?”

Hatsuko said with a hint of pride.

“She’s an actress.”

“Actress?”
“What’s the name?”

“Eikawa Yuriko.”

After hearing that, Sugimura looked at her face properly for the first time. Indeed, she somewhat resembled Eikawa Yuriko; though the younger sister was beautiful, as befitting Café Dragon’s top dancer, the elder sister Hatsuko was an exceptional beauty.

“Where did Yoshikawa and Yuriko meet?”

“It was when she was working as a hostess in Yokohama with me. Mr. Yoshikawa favored my sister a great deal. At that time, he was still a student, but he would tell all sorts of lies to wheedle money out of his father, spend it like water to win my sister’s favor—until finally his father found out and cut off his tuition. Mr. Yoshikawa became utterly despondent and disappeared for a short while, but soon after dropping out of school and claiming he’d become a driver, he started coming around again.”

“So they were lovers after all?”

“You must be joking. What—there’s no way my sister would ever fall for such an ugly man!”
“But they did live together.”

“It was only because of unavoidable circumstances—merely as a token gesture—that they ended up living together in the same house.”

“What circumstances?”

“Yuriko was quite confident in her looks, so she used to repeat like a mantra that she wanted to become an actress.”
“Then Mr. Yoshikawa heard this and said that no matter how beautiful she was, without proper connections she could never become an actress—even if by some chance she did, she’d remain stuck in minor roles forever and never become a star.”
“‘People with good sponsors climb fast,’ he said. ‘Luckily my uncle’s an executive at a film company—I’ll have him help you.’”
“‘In return,’ he added jokingly, ‘you have to marry me once I make you an actress.’”
“My sister—obsessed with becoming an actress—carelessly agreed without thinking it through.”
“Though it sounds odd coming from me—Yuriko truly has a beautiful face and figure. She didn’t need Mr. Yoshikawa’s help to get noticed.”
“Yet he kept insisting ‘I made her an actress,’ using it as leverage until he forced her to keep that promise.”
“She’d always hated him anyway, so after two or three days she ran off and hid.”

“However, she recently found a good patron—though how Yoshikawa-san sniffed that out, I don’t know—but he found out and has been scouring the city in a frenzy.
“That alone would’ve been bad enough, but he even sent a letter to that patron saying things like ‘Yuriko has a proper husband named Yoshikawa’—making these threatening insinuations, apparently!”
“Did the patron not know that Yuriko had a husband?”

“Of course he didn’t know.”
“We’d been desperately hiding it—after all, we couldn’t let such a wonderful patron slip away. His family standing was impeccable, he spent money freely, and he was an exceptionally fine man.—Though some in society did slander him as a delinquent.—He’d become so infatuated with Yuriko that he’d overridden all his relatives’ objections and was moving toward formally marrying her when that wrecking-ball of a letter arrived.—He kept pressing my sister to confess the truth, insisting he wouldn’t get angry, until she finally had no choice but to admit her past with Mr. Yoshikawa.”

While his half-believing state had been tolerable, once he learned it was true, it must have unsettled him deeply. He’d been such an uncomplicated man before, but suddenly turned prickly and suspicious—misconstruing that whenever Yuriko came home from an outing, she must’ve gone to meet Yoshikawa; if a visitor arrived, he’d angrily assume it was him. “Now there’s friction between them too—and Mr. Yoshikawa, for his part, was furious she’d found a patron. Last night he even came to my place to pick a fight.”

With that, she clamped her mouth shut as if startled.
Sugimura did not let that slip and interrogated her relentlessly.

“To your place?”
“Last night?”
“What time was it?”

Hatsuko regretted having carelessly let her tongue slip and chattered about unnecessary things, but with no other choice,

“I think it was around ten o’clock.”
“He said, ‘You’re the one who ruined my relationship with Yuri-chan, Hatsu-chan,’ with this resentful look on his face.”
“Even without that, his face was so creepy—I shuddered and fled back to the café.”
“Then Yoshikawa-san apparently left in a huff.”

“Then Yoshikawa came back again, didn’t he?”

“No, he never came back to the shop after that.”

“Then he came to your apartment?”

“No, that never happened.”
“I was at the shop last night and stayed until morning, so when I returned to the apartment this morning—”

Sugimura pondered for a moment,

“What’s the patron’s name?” he asked.

“Mr. Kawaguchi Yuzuru.”

“Kawaguchi Yuzuru? Hmm, the son of that famous Dr. Kawaguchi?”

“Yes, that’s correct. His father passed away last year, but he was an extremely wealthy man, and Mr. Yuzuru is their only son. He graduated from merchant marine school this year and is about to secure a job position. He doesn’t look like some strong fourth-dan judo practitioner—he has a cute face and is very modern. He dresses smartly and drives his own impressive private car to Dragon from time to time. The hostesses all make a big fuss—there’s not a single person who doesn’t envy Yuriko. When I think that even that happiness might be torn to shreds by Mr. Yoshikawa, I can’t help but feel sorry for Yuriko. Once someone like that latches onto you, it’s over—he’s so relentless—”

Just then, a detective entered.

“Eikawa Yuriko left yesterday evening saying she was going to her sister’s place and still hasn’t returned.”
“We checked all likely locations and conducted searches, but she’s nowhere to be found,” he reported.

Sugimura summoned Kawaguchi Yuzuru, but received a response stating he was unexpectedly hospitalized at a facility in Tsukiji and thus unable to appear. Contacting the hospital revealed he had just undergone surgery for acute appendicitis that morning, with all visits prohibited. If Kawaguchi truly required absolute bedrest from such an illness, Sugimura reasoned, involvement in the case seemed inconceivable.

The Discarded Dead Beauty

Just as he had finished interrogating Hatsuko, he received another report.

In the north side of a large building in Marunouchi, there was an abandoned automobile. There stood the entrance to a certain bank nearby. One of the janitors cleaning the area happened to peer inside the car and froze in shock. On the seat lay a woman collapsed on her back with a blue-tinged face, her slender neck wrapped in a pure white muffler, a thread of blood like crimson silk flowing from her lips to stain the rubber mats and seats red. He rushed to the nearest police box in a panic to report his discovery.

The investigation revealed that the deceased was Eikawa Yuriko, a film actress who had recently risen to prominence. It was believed someone had transported her corpse there and abandoned it along with the automobile, but with no driver in sight, suspicion fell on them possibly being responsible. Soon after identifying the vehicle through its license number, Swallow Taxi's owner was summoned; he testified that Yoshikawa had driven the car out of the garage during yesterday evening's shift change.

Despite two murder cases occurring in a single day throwing the Investigative Division into disarray—with all agencies mobilizing their full efforts to apprehend the culprit—not a single suspect other than Hatsuko emerged.

After returning irritably to headquarters, Yamamoto Keiichi was waiting for him,

“When I met a waitress named Misako from Café Dragon just now, she said she saw Yoshikawa and Yuriko get into a car in front of Dragon around ten o’clock last night and drive off somewhere—though with both of them dead now, there’s no way to confirm—but surely you don’t think Hatsuko killed them? Though you seem to suspect her, Inspector—”

“Until the culprit is caught, I’m keeping a suspicious eye on everyone.”

“It seems Misako knows something, but she’s holding back from telling me out of consideration—when people conceal things like this, it makes things difficult—that must be unfavorable for Hatsuko, but as a matter of principle, I want to investigate this thoroughly. If there’s even the slightest suspicious point, I won’t show mercy—not even to my own wife—but I still believe in Hatsuko, so—”

“Even if we conclude from Misako’s testimony that she’s the culprit?”

“I will definitely apprehend the real culprit and overturn that testimony.”

Sugimura smiled and,

“Then let’s summon Misako and question her immediately.”

“I thought you would say that, so I brought her along.”
“I have her waiting downstairs, so I’ll go call her.”

Before long, Yamamoto returned with Misako—a woman around twenty-one or twenty-two who appeared meek. He left her behind and exited the room.

“Were you with Hatsuko the entire time last night?” Sugimura asked. “Yes, I was with her until daybreak—”

“Yoshikawa and Hatsuko—what was their relationship?”

“There was nothing else apart from Gorilla, right?”

“Then what about Kawaguchi?”

“Mr. Kawaguchi was initially infatuated with her older sister Hatsuko-san.”
“Since he’s clever like that—he’d been half-managing her while squeezing her dry—but when he found out she had this patron named Mr.Yamamoto the private detective... well! He threw such a fit about being deceived! But then somehow... he ended up getting close with her younger sister Yuri-chan instead.”
“Of course it was Hatsuko-san who introduced them! But Yuri-chan—she’s not sharp like her big sis—being such a soft-hearted thing... Mr.Kawaguchi took right to her and gave up on Hatsuko-san altogether.”
“But then recently—when Mr.Kawaguchi learned Yuri-chan had this... arrangement with Mr.Yoshikawa—well! It’s all stirred up again!”

“I hear Kawaguchi blames Yuriko—but doesn’t he say anything to Hatsuko, who introduced them? Hmm?”

“On the contrary—it’s been dreadful.”
“The other day he came to the shop drunk and went on a violent rant abusing Hatsuko.”
“She’s a poisonous woman—a villain—”

“What was Hatsuko doing?”

“She was hiding, you know.”
“Hatsuko-san’s quite skilled—she’ll smooth things over again soon enough.”

“But wasn’t Yoshikawa angry too?”

“Yes, he was extremely angry.”
“Last night they had a huge fight—”

“What?”
“Did they have a huge fight?”
“Where did it happen?”

“At the café.”

“Were you there at the scene?” Sugimura leaned forward and,

“Start from the beginning—tell everything in detail. Think carefully about how the fight started and make sure there are no mistakes.”

Misako bowed her head and considered for a short while before gradually beginning to speak.

Café Dragon

Hatsuko’s lively voice filled the booths.
Misako took the other rounds and went to greet her customer.

There, Yumemaru—one of the rounds—came fluttering her long sleeves, brought her lips to Hatsuko’s ear, and whispered something.
She immediately knitted her brows, clicked her tongue, and shook her head vehemently.
Yumemaru withdrew knowingly, but before long came again and,

“No good, sis—he absolutely won’t leave.”
“So please come for a bit,” she pleaded.
Hatsuko flared up,

“Just leave him. Gorilla... If you don’t bother with him, he’ll just leave on his own,” she declared in a shrill voice.

“That’s a terrible thing to say. I’ll take my leave then.” The customer stood up with a displeased look and, ignoring everyone’s attempts to stop him, briskly headed toward the entrance.

Hatsuko was quite drunk, so her steps were unsteady as she chased after him, but when she suddenly noticed Yoshikawa standing at the entrance,

“What the hell—you’re interfering with business! I’ve got no business with the likes of you!” she suddenly lashed out.

“You may have lost yours, but I’ve still got mine.”

“What a persistent man! If you’ve got business, go around to the kitchen entrance—having you loitering out front is terrible for business!”

Misako, unable to bear watching any longer, guided Yoshikawa to the third-floor costume room.

“I’ll bring Hatsuko-san here, so please wait right there,” she said, placing matches and an ashtray in front of him before returning to Hatsuko. “You should meet him quickly and send him away. If you make him too angry, it’ll backfire on you,” she cautioned, then forcibly sent her into the costume room.

“What business could you possibly have coming here at such a busy time?”

Yoshikawa remained silent with a pale face but glared at Hatsuko with fierce eyes,

“Where did you hide Yuriko?”

“I don’t know anything about that—”

“Confess! Where’s Yuriko?”

“I don’t know a thing! What confession? That’s bullshit!”

“What?!”

“Threatening me won’t make me flinch.”
“Because Mr. Yoshikawa was pestering her too much, Yuriko got fed up and ran off, didn’t she?”

“That’s not it.
“You’re the one who hid her! You—”

Clenching his teeth against the rising frustration, his eyes bloodshot,

“You’re the one who came between us,” he said, biting his lip.

“It’s not that I split you apart—you were hated. She’s hiding because she can’t stand seeing you. Don’t you get that? Your delusions are downright scary.”

Yoshikawa suddenly stood up and slammed the ashtray.

“Oh, careful!—You think you can look down on me because I’m a woman? Just go home already—that’s exactly why women can’t stand you. And what’s more—Ohohoho!”

Hatsuko deliberately looked up at his face, studying it intently, then burst out laughing.
Yoshikawa ground his teeth and shouted.

“You’ll pay for this!”

“I’ll forget.”

She threw the half-smoked cigarette butt at his face with a thud and stood up to go down the stairs when Yoshikawa chased after her and grabbed her by the collar.

“You’re so annoying. How far does someone have to go to be this detestable? If I tell you to go home—just get lost already! This isn’t a place for the likes of you, you gorilla.”

“You bastard!”

Yoshikawa slapped Hatsuko’s cheeks—putting all his strength into it, he struck her again and again.
She clung fiercely to his torso and let out an exaggerated scream,

“Murderer! Murderer!” she shrieked.

Misako was frantic,

“Help—someone come—!” she shouted.
As clattering footsteps raced up the back stairs, Yoshikawa shoved her aside, flew down the steps, and fled out the front.
Hatsuko became like a madwoman, writhing in frustration,

“Misa-chan, hurry—catch Gorilla!” she clamored, so Misako pursued Yoshikawa.

When Yoshikawa stepped out into the street, he suddenly encountered Yuriko.

“Y-you…,” he stammered as he frantically ran up to her. Whether Yuriko was delighted or horrified by this chance encounter, she stood frozen in place, not moving an inch for a moment—until finally, in a voice strained from her throat,

“It’s been some time, hasn’t it?” she smiled brightly.
That single remark sent him into raptures.

“Where are you going?” Yuriko asked impatiently, fidgeting as she spoke.

“To my sister’s place—there’s some urgent business—” she said, casting a pleading glance at Misako that screamed for rescue.

Even if she ran, she’d be caught—Misako agonized over fetching Hatsuko, but feared abandoning Yuriko would leave her defenseless. As she stood frozen in indecision, Yoshikawa—

“Misa-chan, I won’t tolerate any interference.”
Yoshikawa glared at her with terrifying eyes, and Misako shrank back.

“Yuri-chan, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“Hey, come with me there for a bit.”

“Then, I’ll just go to my sister’s place and come back, and then it’ll be okay, right?”

“No, no.
I’m in a hurry here.”

He took her away, dragging her as she hesitated.
Misako saw it happening but couldn’t intervene.

“Detective, that’s all I know.”

“After that, did Yuriko not come to her sister’s place?”

“She didn’t come.”
“Hatsuko-san waited desperately, but—”
“I was afraid of being scolded, so I kept quiet about Yuri-chan being taken by Yoshikawa-san.”

The damning fact of having quarreled with him just before his death further damaged her standing. Under intense questioning, she initially maintained complete ignorance but ultimately broke down and confessed to both the altercation with Yoshikawa and ownership of the peach ribbon. She explained that during their struggle, the ribbon tied in her hair had caught on Yoshikawa's cufflink and torn free. Yet why had he clung to it until the final moment, gripping it so tightly? Some meaning must lie there. Could there have been a secret between him and Hatsuko - one that drove her to more vehemently oppose their relationship? Sugimura's suspicions of Hatsuko grew ever deeper.

Who killed Yuriko?
As he considered that possibility—something suddenly flashed into his head.

Sugimura suddenly stood up, took his hat, and hurriedly left.

Sailor’s knot

Two hours later, Sugimura returned energetically.
When the Section Chief saw his face, he asked as though he couldn’t wait.

“How did it go?”
“Did you find any clues?”

“The mystery has finally been solved,” he said with a faint smile.

The Section Chief widened his eyes,

"What?! The mystery's solved?"
"You're saying you've identified the culprit?!"

“I’ve figured it out. Yuriko was killed by Yoshikawa.”

“Who killed Yoshikawa?”

“He himself—meaning this wasn’t murder, but suicide.”

“Was it only wrapping the corpse that was Hatsuko’s doing?”

“No, that too was his own doing.”

“But can someone wrap themselves up and tie it from the outside?”

“It can be done.”
“Since that’s a sailor’s knot, anyone with even a little know-how could manage it.”
“The fact that we’ve just confirmed he was a sailor is why this mystery’s been solved.”
“I’ll explain my theory.”
When Yoshikawa left Café Dragon, he encountered Yuriko by chance, forced her into his car, and pressed for reconciliation—but she refused.
He tried every plea, but when she coldly rebuffed him, his jealousy and hatred surged—he lunged wildly and throttled her slender neck with all his strength.
When he came to his senses, Yuriko lay limp in his arms.
Staring blankly at her lifeless face, he thought, “Now she’s truly mine,” his chest swelling with perverse joy.
Yoshikawa had meant to follow her in death then—but this disaster was all Hatsuko’s fault.
She was the one he loathed.
He resolved to take revenge before dying himself.
Self-delusion’s terrifying—he never grasped how thoroughly she despised him.
“Perhaps it was mercy for him—after agonizing, he decided to kill himself in her room staged as murder, even clutching that peach ribbon to frame her.”

With that, Sugimura brought the ribbon, hemp rope, and furoshiki,

“I’ll demonstrate the sailor’s knot, so please watch carefully.”

He spread out the blue furoshiki, sat at its center, tied one end of the hemp rope to the ribbon, gathered the furoshiki’s four corners and bound them with the rope, gripped the ribbon and slipped entirely inside. From within he pulled vigorously—each tug on the ribbon gradually tightened the hemp rope until with one final grunt of effort, the rope constricted with astonishing force.
At the same time, the ribbon slipped out smoothly and was gripped in his palm.

“He got in, but he couldn’t get out. Please cut the hemp rope.”

The Section Chief cut the rope with a knife.
Sugimura smoothed back his disheveled hair while speaking.

“Yoshikawa stabbed his heart and committed suicide inside the furoshiki.”

“However, if he wanted revenge against the older sister, wouldn’t it have been better to make it look like a love suicide with the younger sister?”
“Moreover—abandoning the woman he loved in the car and going alone to Hatsuko’s apartment—doesn’t that seem a bit odd?”

“He must have run out of gasoline and had no choice but to abandon it there,” he said just as the door behind them opened and a detective approached the Section Chief to deliver the autopsy report.

“The same contents remained in both Yoshikawa and Yuriko’s stomachs, but based on their state of digestion, it was determined that Yoshikawa died first.”

With that single statement, Sugimura’s theory was completely overturned from its foundations.
The detective continued speaking,

“And there was one more crucial discovery.”
“That is a small lump of flesh that came out of Yoshikawa’s mouth.”
“The lump of flesh had skin attached to it.”
“Moreover, it has fingerprints—it appears to be from a fingertip,” he said.

The tip of the little finger

At that moment, Sugimura’s subordinate hurriedly entered.
He had stationed his subordinates at Tsukiji Hospital to await Kawaguchi’s awakening from anesthesia, intending to interrogate him.

“Inspector Sugimura, Mr. Kawaguchi still hasn’t regained consciousness from the anesthesia.”
“He remains deeply unconscious—his condition is considered extremely critical.”
“The medical staff are extremely concerned, and all the family members have rushed here—they’re packed into the hospital room.”

Sugimura started up from his chair and bowed curtly to the Section Chief.

“I’ll be back shortly,” he said, moving toward the door—only to find Yamamoto Keiichi blocking his path.

“Mr. Kawaguchi has just drawn his last breath.”
“Inspector Sugimura,” Yamamoto continued with an air of finality, turning his clear-eyed gaze between the two men, “this settles the case at last.”

“The true key to the mystery lay with Mr. Kawaguchi—”

The Section Chief and Sugimura exchanged glances and remained silent.
Yamamoto continued speaking,

“Inspector Sugimura, I hear Mr. Kawaguchi was admitted to the hospital early this morning.”

“What? What did you say?”

Sugimura asked back in surprise. When we inquired at the hospital, they confirmed he was admitted—having just undergone surgery, they said visits were prohibited—so we took their word at face value, ended the call without verifying his admission date. What a blunder that was.

“It seems Mr. Kawaguchi was hospitalized for appendicitis this spring as well. At that time, he had requested the hospital director to operate immediately if it recurred.”
“That’s why even when he suddenly rushed in, they didn’t suspect anything and promptly took him to the operating room.”
“Unfortunately, the hospital director hadn’t arrived yet, so a young surgeon from the surgical department performed the operation as his substitute.”

“Since the hospital director and the late Dr. Kawaguchi were apparently very close, he might have permitted that degree of selfishness from his son,” Sugimura said.

“That intimate relationship which enabled his willfulness ultimately destroyed Kawaguchi Yuzuru—the only son.”

“I don’t quite grasp what you’re saying—speak more plainly!” the Section Chief snapped impatiently.

“To put it simply, Mr. Kawaguchi falsely claimed appendicitis, stated fabricated symptoms, and deceived the doctors into performing surgery.”
“He had already swallowed a large amount of Calmotin before rushing to the hospital.”
“Unaware of this, the doctor administered anesthetic for the surgery—dangerous enough on its own, but cutting open his abdomen on top of that was unbearable.”
“In other words, Mr. Kawaguchi chose the hospital as his place of death and committed suicide.”

“Why did he commit suicide?”

“The reason became clear through the suicide note Mr. Kawaguchi left for the hospital director.”
“He felt deeply sorry for using the hospital as his place of death.”
“He found it truly unbearable to harm the hospital director—who had doted on him since childhood—and the director’s hospital, but having no other choice, he confided his secret solely to the director and apologized.”
“The hospital director wishes to burn the suicide note as Mr. Kawaguchi requested, but says he’ll show it if we police can secretly dispose of it without public exposure.”
“Since I’ve read it, I’ll give you a brief account.”

And so, he continued speaking while glancing at the notes he had jotted down in his notebook.

“Ever since Kawaguchi learned that Yuriko and Yoshikawa had a past relationship, he had been tormented day and night.”
“Yesterday, feeling unbearably gloomy, he thought to go visit Dragon for distraction. But as he approached the area, Yuriko and Yoshikawa came walking toward him from the opposite direction, looking quite intimate.”

“Up to that point, a waitress named Misako has testified,” Sugimura said.

“The two men seemed ill at ease; though they kept urging us to go for a drive together, I wasn’t keen,” he continued while referencing his notes. “So I said I’d treat them—‘Let’s get something to eat’—and we entered a restaurant for a meal with beer.”

“Those two discontented souls drank recklessly until thoroughly drunk.”

“When we left,” he went on methodically, “Yuriko urged us again until all three boarded the car together.” His tone sharpened slightly at procedural details: “Yoshikawa at the wheel turned desperate—wrenching the steering wheel wildly while accelerating recklessly until our vehicle swayed violently.”

“‘Stop this madness! What kind of driving is this?’” he quoted with clinical detachment before shifting back to narration: “Kawaguchi’s rebuke sparked an argument that escalated into a brutal fight.”

“Yoshikawa drew his dagger,” he stated flatly before emphasizing contrast through cadence: “but against a fourth-degree judo practitioner of formidable strength—”

A brief pause underscored inevitability: “The blade was swiftly seized.”

“And turned against its wielder,” he concluded with forensic precision before adding evidentiary weight: “In his death throes—autopsy confirms—Yoshikawa bit off Kawaguchi’s fingertip.”

“Are you certain that’s Kawaguchi’s fingertip?”

“It’s the pad of the left little finger.”
“Kawaguchi couldn’t endure the agony of acute appendicitis and even bit off his finger—or so the doctor had said—” he continued, returning to his account,
“Overwhelmed by the sheer horror of the scene, Yuriko lost consciousness.”
“Twenty or thirty minutes later, she opened her eyes—but by then, Yoshikawa was already dead.”
“When she saw that, she suddenly felt pity, clung to the corpse, and began to cry.”
Kawaguchi stared fixedly at this.
The realization that she had loved Yoshikawa after all—that he had been deceived—sent a surge of bitter frustration through him. His vision turned pitch black, and without a thought for consequences, he lunged in a frenzy and strangled Yuriko’s neck.
He saw her limp body in his arms but felt not an ounce of pity—this woman who had betrayed his heart!
He gazed at the beautiful deathly face with eyes full of resentment—Yuriko was hateful, but Hatsuko, who had deceived him time and again, was hated all the more.
Kawaguchi gripped the steering wheel and drove the car carrying two corpses, wandering aimlessly through the nighttime streets.
“Just then, a clock somewhere struck 2 AM.”

“So roughly three hours had passed since those three came together in front of Dragon,” Sugimura said.

“To state it precisely—three hours and several tens of minutes.”

“Correct,” Yamamoto affirmed with a nod.

“Then Kawaguchi thought about how to dispose of the corpses,”
“What suddenly occurred to him was to bring Yoshikawa into Hatsuko’s room and make it appear as though she’d killed him.”
“‘Even temporary suspicion would be thrilling—a perfect revenge scheme! Amusing! Imagining her distress was downright delightful.’”
“So he drove the car to the apartment and, using his considerable strength, hauled Yoshikawa on his back through the window she’d left open.”
“He reconsidered—to dodge suspicion, suicide looked better than murder—so he wrapped it in a furoshiki cloth and tied a sailor’s knot Yoshikawa would’ve recognized.”
“The peach ribbon was deliberately arranged to look like part of the knot before being clenched in his hand.”

“Now, as for Yuriko’s corpse—while driving and pondering where to dispose of it—the gasoline ran out, forcing him to abandon both the automobile and her body in Marunouchi.”

“Since he had killed two people,” he continued while glancing at his notebook notes,“he had no desire to go on living.”

“However,” he resumed,“he couldn’t bear tarnishing his family name through a botched suicide.After agonizing over it,”—Yamamoto paused meaningfully—“he hit upon what seemed like brilliance.At least,” he added dryly,“to himself.”

“It was feigning appendicitis,” he explained,“undergoing surgery,and letting them take his life.”

“So he swallowed lethal Calmotin beforehand,”Yamamoto tapped his notes,“and checked into the hospital.”

“Doctors never imagined pre-ingested sedatives,”his voice turned clinical.“They administered anesthetic freely.”

A beat.“Kawaguchi’s scheme worked flawlessly.”

“He died mid-sleep,”Yamamoto concluded flatly.“No struggle.”

Then softer:“Yet despite meticulous planning—”

“—he forgot,”Sugimura interjected,“the fingertip.”

“Precisely.”Yamamoto nodded.“Left lodged like evidence.”