‘This is going back eleven or twelve years . . .’
Seeing Ashida – Goggle Eyes – outside the assembly hall the previous day, Mikami had remembered him coming to ask about making an arrest on charges of fraud. A luxury import car-salesman had hanged himself. The man’s wife had come to Ashida with the story. Her husband had been due to deliver a German car – valued at around 16 million yen – to a local Yakuza gang. Once payment was confirmed in full in the company account, he’d taken the car out at the pre-arranged time of 1 p.m. There he’d come across one of the Yakuza, a young man with a shaved head, waiting outside the building. The thug had said the wakagashira – the Number Two – was out, but that he had his personal stamp for the signature. The salesman had got him to press the stamp confirming delivery, then gone back to his office. At six that evening, he’d received a call from the wakagashira. Where’s my car? The salesman had gone pale. I delivered it to one of your people, a younger man. The salesman had described the man’s appearance, but was told they had no one of that description. He knew the wakagashira was lying, but he was Yakuza and the salesman didn’t feel he could press the matter. The wakagashira’s name was Hagiwara. The salesman saw then that the stamp said Ogiwara. In that moment, he was landed with a debt of 16 million yen. The crux was that the call had been made at 6 p.m. Five hours was enough to get the car to the Japan Sea or the Pacific. It would have been disassembled, or had its plates altered; it would be on a container vessel somewhere. When Mikami had told Goggle Eyes the only avenue was to go after the young man who’d used the stamp, he’d muttered something about it being difficult because the Yakuza used people from Kansai to take their deliveries.
‘That could be useful, thanks. I’ll get my people to check if anything like that happened before Six Four.’
‘One more thing, about the phone calls . . .’
Mobile phones hadn’t existed at the time of the Six Four kidnapping, but car phones were already in widespread use. It was possible that a dealer in luxury imported cars stocked models that hadn’t yet been fitted.
‘I don’t understand the technical details, but say it was possible somehow to carry the phone, battery and the antenna; the kidnapper could have been near Dragon’s Hollow when he called the fishing lodge.’
‘Meaning he could have been working alone.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Okay, I’ve got people looking into the car phone. Was that all?’
‘Does his sports store stock anything related to water sports?’
‘Not much: no inflatables. Apparently, he has lots of stock for barbecues. Anything else?’
Mikami drew a long breath.
‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Just one?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Look, I’m busy. If you’ve got more, just say it.’
‘Fine . . . two questions.’
‘Go on.’
‘Koda and Amamiya. Are they still alive?’
Are they with you? If not, do you have an idea where they might be?
‘Of course they are . . .’
The response was immediate. But . . .
‘. . . why would anyone who staked their lives on something like this choose to die before seeing the result?’
Mikami was amazed.
‘You’re going to leave them alone?’
‘Don’t worry. They’ll show up once we get Mesaki.’
‘But . . .’
‘They held the tip of a blade to our throats. It’s only right we put an end to Six Four first. They’d be forced to live in dishonour if we did this back to front.’
A warrior’s respect, perhaps. But was that all?
Mikami decided on his second question.
‘The truth about today. How did you find out about it?’
He had to ask. How had Matsuoka been able to connect everything to Six Four without Amamiya’s help and with only the ‘M’ calls to go on? He’d been in the command vehicle because he’d been able to predict what might happen. Unless Koda had tipped him off – in which case he would have had full knowledge of what was going to take place and been there as an observer. If that was true, he could even be implicated in conspiring with Amamiya and Koda from the start, running the entire thing to bring in the Six Four kidnapper.
‘It was when I saw him, yesterday, at his house.’
The response was unexpected.
‘Mesaki’s house?’
Mikami thought he heard the man chuckle to himself. ‘I let my eyes ask the question of everyone I meet. Are you the bastard behind Six Four?’
‘But he . . .’
‘No one admits to it. Mesaki, though . . . Well, he was more afraid of us detectives than he was of the kidnapper.’
Mikami was finally able to breathe out.
Testing everyone he met. That was how Matsuoka had spent the last fourteen years. His eyes had drilled mercilessly into those of a man whose daughter had been taken from him. There had been his age. The slightly hoarse voice. He’d been flustered, acting suspicious, even accounting for the effect of the kidnapping. His eyes had shied away from the detectives. He’d been targeted for revenge, a copycat crime . . . because he was the perpetrator of the original. Matsuoka would have constructed his hypothesis, and worked backwards from there. That would doubtless have been when he’d made the connection with the series of silent calls, the ‘M’ calls, already in the back of his mind.
The thought triggered a memory.
‘There was a gap between the kidnapper’s call and Mesaki reporting it in?’
‘That’s right. Twenty-five minutes.’
The kidnapper had abstained from using the stock phrase: Don’t tell the police. Koda hadn’t given Mesaki an excuse to hesitate. Despite this, there’d been a gap of twenty-five minutes. What would Mesaki have said when Mutsuko told him of the kidnapper’s call? Whatever it was, there was no doubt his blood – that belonging to the father and to the monster – would have turned to ice. Mikami had to wonder, would Mesaki have reported it if the kidnapper had warned him against notifying the police?
‘The man was probably terrified. Having the people he feared more than anything else milling around his house like that.’
And with Matsuoka there before him.
Are you the bastard behind Six Four?
Mesaki hadn’t said anything, but he’d still given the game away.
Yes.
‘Mikami, if you’d pass on my thanks to Minako.’
‘Ah, of course. Was she able to help?’
‘Very much so.’
‘What did you have her doing?’
‘As I said, Special Ops.’
‘Right, of course . . .’
He thought he heard Matsuoka laugh again. ‘Actually, it’s fine. I’ll tell you. She was right there, by your side.’
‘She . . .?’
‘I transferred everyone in the Undercover Unit who’d been in the Aoi Café during Six Four to the hair salon. They would all recognize Amamiya.’
‘So, he . . .?’
‘He was there. Right there in the middle of the onlookers. Watching Mesaki.’
Huh. Amamiya had been there, too.
‘Minako spotted him first. She called in to let us know, just after you left for the headquarters in Pursuit 2.’