Inter Ice Age 4 Page 6

  “Pretty troublesome business.”

  “Did you see?”

  “Yes. Only the last part.”

  “What about the others?”

  “I’m having Aiba and Wada wait over there. I thought some addition to the analysis might be necessary.”

  “I waited for you to telephone.”

  Tanomogi picked at his sweat-soaked shirt, drawing it away from his skin, and slowly licked his lips. I turned my chair around and faced in his direction, continuing the conversation in a spiteful tone that surprised even me.

  “Look here. I received a threatening phone call from some nut.”

  “What?” said Tanomogi, his body stiffening as he grasped the back of the chair on which he had been about to seat himself.

  “He said not to get too involved. He said the police had already got wind that there were two men shadowing Tsuchida. Maybe it’s true. In Tsuda’s report it said the same thing.”

  “So?”

  “So the fellow who made the telephone call knows that the two men shadowing were us.”

  “Of course.” Tanomogi made a rasping sound, and bending his long, slender fingers one after the other, said: “Well then, someone else happened to be there.”

  “That’s exactly what we’d like them to believe.”

  “I see,” said Tanomogi, biting his lower lip, his gaze slipping to the vicinity of my chest. “Maybe the fellow on the phone is actually the real criminal. But you, sir, are the only one who talked to him. Besides, you’re my accomplice. If the police really begin looking for the two shadowers in earnest, we’re like rats in a trap.”

  “I’ve been trying to think of the relative position of the shadow at the window and the layout of the room. That shadow is definitely the one that was cast when Tsuchida collapsed. But you were the only one to see the other shadow from where you were.”

  “If they claimed it was my own shadow, I couldn’t deny it,” he muttered with a forced smile, clicking his tongue. “It’s fatal for us that our model didn’t see his murderer. We go to the trouble of analyzing the body, and now it’s become our enemy. Things have got to the point where if there were the slightest possibility that I might have a motive, you’d suspect me, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.”

  “The motive’s another difficult thing to establish, because it won’t be easy to make him confess.” Then I explained how the man, though he was merely the reaction of the machine, stubbornly refused to recognize that he himself was dead, and how hard to manage he was. Tanomogi listened to me in silence. Then he said quietly: “Well then, there’s nothing to do but take him unawares.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean, to make him he’s still alive.”

  16

  Perhaps we can say that we succeeded more or less. We put into his—I mean the machine’s-mind that he was actually in bed in the hospital and that the fact that he could neither see nor feel was due to shock. But, we told him, that too would soon get better, and he began to speak surprisingly easily, crying for revenge. Since we had been clever enough to make him talk, we had been successful, I suppose, but it was still a question to what extent that would help us.

  It was rapidly getting dark even though it was not yet six, and it had begun to rain. Great drops spattered against the windowpane. I listened to the machine’s confession with a restive feeling, as if I were seated on a two-legged chair. The following is a verbatim report of what it said.

  REPORT

  I MUST SAY, IT WOULD BE BETTER TO BE DEAD. IT’S DISGRACEFUL. UNDERSTAND? I’M OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER. A DISGUSTING WOMAN CHASER. I WONDER WHAT MY WIFE’S SAYING. SHE’LL NEVER FORGIVE ME. I’VE NEVER BEEN SLIGHTEST BIT DISSATISFIED WITH HER. TO TELL THE TRUTH • • • [SECTION OMITTED.]

  THE GIRL KONDO CHIKAKO SANG IN A CABARET. BUT SHE WAS A QUIET, WELL-MEANING THING; YOU’D NEVER BELIEVE SHE WAS THAT KIND. SHE AN ANGULAR, BONY BODY, BUT NICE. AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED—YOU CAN ASK ANYONE—I’M A BIT PRUDISH; I NEVER GO TO PLACES LIKE THAT. BUT THAT NIGHT I WENT ALONG WITH THE PRESIDENT OF OUR COMPANY, AND, WELL • • • [SECTION OMITTED.]

  I REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND. A GIRL WHO MADE A SATISFACTORY LIVING AND A FIFTY-YEAR-OLD MAN WITH THINNING HAIR AND NOT REALLY GOOD-LOOKING AT ALL. I HAD REASON TO LOSE MY HEAD. SHE WOULD STROKE MY BEARD WITH HER SMOOTH LITTLE FINGERTIPS. I WAS GRATEFUL, YOU KNOW. I REALLY CAN’T PUT IT INTO WORDS; IT WAS AS IF I HAD LOST MYSELF. I WAS HAPPY. IT’S NOT EVERYBODY’S CUP OF TEA, I KNOW. BUT YOU’VE GOT TO REALIZE ONE THING: MONEY WASN’T THE OBJECT. YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IT, BUT IT’S TRUE. OF COURSE, I HELPED HER OUT A LITTLE EVERY MONTH. SHE SAID SHE WAS SATISFIED WITH THAT. HER BODY WAS ANGULAR, BUT SHE WAS REALLY A GENTLE GIRL. SHE WASN’T IN LOVE WITH ME, BUT SHE LIKED ME. SHE DIDN’T DENY IT. SHE SAID IT OPENLY. THAT’S SOMETHING FOR YOU THESE DAYS • • • [SECTION OMITTED.]

  BUT THEN SUSPICION GRADUALLY RAISED ITS UGLY HEAD. I’D GOT TO BEING STINGY ABOUT THINGS WHAT WITH WORKING THIRTY YEARS NOW AS AN ACCOUNTANT. I WAS NERVOUS; I WONDERED WHETHER I WOULDN’T BE TAPPED FOR MORE MONEY, BUT I WAS DISSATISFIED THAT SHE HADN’T ASKED ME. SHE WAS TOO STRAIGHTFORWARD ABOUT THE WHOLE THING. I DON’T HAVE MUCH SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND SO I WAS COMPLETELY HELPLESS. WHILE THINGS WERE GOING ALONG LIKE THAT, THERE WAS A LITTLE INCIDENT. WELL, NOT AN INCIDENT REALLY, BUT ONE DAY WHEN I WENT TO HER ROOM I FOUND THAT SHE HAD BOUGHT A CARPET THAT HAD COST A LOT OF MONEY. SAY, DID YOU SEE IT? JUDGING FROM THE STATE OF HER PURSE, IT WAS A LUXURY. BEING IN THE ACCOUNTING LINE, I KNEW IT. BUT I WAS EVEN MORE AMAZED WHEN I ASKED HER THE REASON SHE HAD BOUGHT IT. SHE SAID SHE WAS PREGNANT, AND WHEN I ASKED WHETHER SHE HAD MADE THE PURCHASE TO COMMEMORATE THE EVENT, MY CHEST BEGAN TO PALPITATE IN A MANNER MOST UNBECOMING FOR MY AGE. I WAS ON THE VERGE OF TEARS. IT WAS AMAZING, FOR MY WIFE HAD HAD NO CHILDREN. NO, I SHOULDN’T SAY AMAZING. ANYWAY, IT WAS ROMANTIC, AND I FELT AS IF I WANTED TO SHOUT THE PLAUDITS OF THIS OTHER UNKNOWN ME FROM THE HOUSETOPS. I WAS IN SUCH A STATE AS TO BE CONVINCED THAT WHEN I TOLD MY WIFE, WHO KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE AFFAIR, SHE WOULD BE HAPPY FOR ME. AH, IS IT RAINING? I HEAR IT. OH, NOW JUST A MINUTE. WE’RE GETTING TO THE MAIN POINT OF THE STORY. [A FIT OF COUGHING.] BUT WHAT COMES NOW IS ANTICLIMACTIC. IT’S TRUE, SHE WAS PREGNANT. SURPRISED, AREN’T YOU? THIS DAY SHE SAYS SHE’S JUST HAD AN ABORTION. WELL, THAT WAS ALL RIGHT. I REALIZED EVEN I DIDN’T HAVE THAT MUCH CONFIDENCE IN LIVING. BUT THE FACT THAT SHE DIDN’T SAY A WORD SORT OF MAKES A FOOL OF A MAN. I WAS SIMPLY FURIOUS. I MADE ALL SORTS OF ACCUSATIONS: SHE DIDN’T KNOW WHOSE CHILD IT WAS, OR SHE WAS FRIGHTENED, I’D SAY, TO GO ON AND HAVE IT. AH, YES, I UNDERSTOOD. SHE HAD BEEN GOT PREGNANT BY SOMEONE WEALTHY AND HAD USED THAT AS A PRETEXT TO EXTORT MONEY. IF NOT, WHERE HAD THE CASH COME FROM TO BUY THE CARPET?

  MM • • • THEN DID THAT MEAN THAT I WAS THE DRAWSTRING FOR THE EXTORTION? I WANTED TO KNOW. SHE SHOOK HER HEAD AND BROKE OUT CRYING. NO, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT. LAST NIGHT WE DIDN’T SEE EACH OTHER AT ALL. THIS HAPPENED, LET ME SEE, ALMOST TWO MONTHS AGO.

  LET ME GO ON. I’VE TOLD YOU UP TO THE POINT WHERE I HAD HER CORNERED. SHE CRIED. I KNEW VERY WELL SHE WAS NOT THE TYPE OF GIRL TO GO IN FOR EXTORTION, BUT THERE WASN’T ANY OTHER EXPLANATION FOR IT, WAS THERE? SHE DEFENDED HERSELF DESPERATELY. BUT HER DEFENSE WAS QUITE RIDICULOUS. SHE SAID THERE WAS A HOSPITAL THAT WOULD PERFORM THE ABORTION AND GIVE HER SEVEN THOUSAND YEN TO BOOT, PROVIDED THE FETUS WAS WITHIN THREE WEEKS OF CONCEPTION. SHE THOUGHT IT STRANGE, BUT WENT TO THE HOSPITAL TO SEE. SHE WAS TOLD SHE WAS EXACTLY THREE WEEKS PREGNANT. SO SHE HAD THE ABORTION ON THE SPOT. COULD ANYONE BELIEVE THAT? THERE’S A LIMIT TO THE RIDICULOUS. WELL, I ASKED HER TO TELL ME THE NAME OF THE HOSPITAL. WHEREUPON SHE SAID SHE COULDN’T, SHE’D PROMISED NOT TO, SHE’D PROBABLY GET INTO SERIOUS TROUBLE IF SHE DID. I SCREAMED AT HER TO STOP IT, AND SLAPPED HER. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD STRUCK A WOMAN MYSELF, THOUGH I’VE READ ABOUT IT IN STORIES. ACTUALLY I DIDN’T LIKE IT. IT WAS DEMORALIZING, THAT DAY I DECIDED TO LEAVE WITHOUT A WORD.

  BUT I WAS NOT SATISFIED WITH HER EXPLANATION. FROM THAT DAY ON I WAS
TORTURED WITH SUSPICION. I WOULD CORNER HER SOMEHOW, SOME WAY SHE COULDN’T GET OUT OF. FORTUNATELY SHE HAD A BANKBOOK, A REGULAR SAVINGS ACCOUNT. AND CURIOUSLY SHE EVEN KEPT THE OLD BOOKS THAT SERVED NO PURPOSE. THIS WAS AN IMPORTANT CATCH, YOU UNDERSTAND, FOR I’M IN ACCOUNTING. I WENT UP TO HER FLAT WHEN SHE WAS OUT AND SEARCHED IT THOROUGHLY. FIGURES ARE VERY INTERESTING THINGS, DEPENDING ON HOW YOU READ THEM. THEY CLEARED UP A LOT OF THINGS. SHE HAD QUITE UNEXPLAINABLE EXTRA INCOME, AT MOST TWO TIMES A WEEK AND AT LEAST TWO TO THREE TIMES A MONTH. I COULDN’T BE HOODWINKED. I CONFRONTED HER WITH THE EVIDENCE. THIS WAS JUST THREE DAYS AGO. SHE BURST OUT CRYING AGAIN, BUT IT DIDN’T WORK. THIS WAS UNDENIABLE PROOF. BUT AGAIN SHE BEGAN HER RIDICULOUS JUSTIFICATIONS. AGAIN SHE HAULED OUT THE LUDICROUS STORY ABOUT THE INCREDIBLE HOSPITAL, SAYING SHE COULD GET TWO THOUSAND YEN EACH TIME SHE INTRODUCED A WOMAN WITHIN THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF PREGNANCY. SHE SAID THE HOSPITAL WANTED TO BUY ANY FETUS WITHIN THE FIRST THREE WEEKS AFTER CONCEPTION AND SHE WAS SUPPLEMENTING HER SALARY BY WORKING AS A COMMISSION AGENT FOR IT. A WEIRD STORY. I WAS MORE WORRIED THAN SUSPICIOUS. I WONDERED IF SHE HADN’T GONE QUEER IN THE HEAD. WHEN I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, IT WAS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. AS A WOMAN, SHE WAS TOO LACKING IN PASSION. THEN WHEN I PERSISTED IN QUESTIONING HER FURTHER, SHE SAID SHE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO HER IF IT WERE KNOWN AT THE HOSPITAL THAT SHE HAD TOLD ME. SHE WAS SINCERELY FRIGHTENED, CLAIMING THAT SHE MIGHT EVEN POSSIBLY BE MURDERED. THE FETUSES THAT BEEN PURCHASED DID NOT DIE. THEY WERE NOURISHED BY A SPECIAL DEVICE IN THE HOSPITAL, BECOMING MORE PERFECT BEINGS THAN IF THEY DEVELOPED IN A WOMAN’S WOMB. OUR CHILD WAS ALIVE AND WELL. NOW, WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT? MAKES YOU SHUDDER, DOESN’T IT? IF IT WAS TRUE, THIS WAS BIG NEWS; IF IT WAS A LIE, WELL, AS A LIE, IT WAS A WHOPPER. NOT TO BE OUTDONE, I SAID TO HER: “WELL THEN, TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL.” IF I THOUGHT SHE WOULD BE NONPLUSED, I WAS WRONG. SHE PROPOSED, SERIOUSLY, TALKING TO THE HOSPITAL ABOUT IT, IF THAT WAS WHAT I WANTED.

  IT WAS YESTERDAY SHORTLY AFTER NOON THAT I GOT HER ANSWER. SHE PHONED ME AT THE OFFICE AND SAID THAT SOMEONE AT THE HOSPITAL WOULD COME WITH HER THAT NIGHT TO THE R-CAFE IN SHINJUKU AFTER SEVEN AND EXPLAIN, AND THAT I WAS TO GO THERE. I WAS SURPRISED, FOR I NEVER DREAMT SHE WOULD FOLLOW THROUGH. SINCE A TRAP WAS QUITE OUT OF THE QUESTION NOW, I CONCLUDED THAT SHE HAD TAKEN LEAVE OF HER SENSES. I WAITED AND WAITED FOR HER AT THE CAFE; SHE DIDN’T COME. I STILL WONDERED IDLY THROUGH MY GROWING IMPATIENCE WHETHER IT MIGHT NOT BE A GOOD IDEA TO TAKE HER TO SOME HOSPITAL FOR NERVOUS DISORDERS TOE NEXT DAY. AND, WELL, YOU KNOW THE REST. I WAS NICELY TAKEN IN. NO, NO. I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE PEOPLE AT THE HOSPITAL. IT MUST HAVE BEEN A MAN. SHE WAS EMBARRASSED WITH ME, I SUPPOSE, THOUGH SHE DIDN’T SAY SO BECAUSE SHE WAS SHY. NEEDING A COVER, SHE THOUGHT UP THE BUSINESS ABOUT A HOSPITAL THAT BUYS FETUSES. IF SHE DISLIKES ME THAT MUCH, WHY DIDN’T SHE JUST SAY SO? AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE, I DON’T WANT TO BE CALLED UNREASONABLE. SHE WOULDN’T DO ANYTHING SO VIOLENT AS TO LURE ME PURPOSELY AND HAVE ME BEATEN BY SOMEONE. THE FACT REMAINS THAT I HAVE BEEN DEEPLY HURT.

  17

  “The real question is the girl, of course, isn’t it?”

  I bit my lips, restraining myself from saying it made things more complicated if a girl were involved.

  “But the girl admitted being the criminal and apparently won’t reverse her confession, isn’t that true?”

  “That’s what’s funny. If we believe the murdered man, she may have been somewhat neurotic.”

  “Was she frightened of something? I wonder.”

  “Maybe she’s just afraid of her own shadow, or perhaps she’s trying to protect the real murderer. Of course, it’s always possible she really was threatened, I suppose.”

  “Practically speaking, the first two eventualities are more likely, but when I think about the threatening call I received a while ago, I definitely wouldn’t rule out the possibility of intimidation.”

  “Oh, yes, the telephone call.” Tanomogi’s whole face twisted into a frown as if he were trying to squeeze meaning out of the notion. “Then it can’t for a moment be her lover, can it. No, no. I was against the lover hypothesis from the beginning. One simply can’t imagine him deliberately murdering such a good-hearted, insignificant man over her. The motive is too flimsy.”

  ‘Well then, are you saying we should accept the hypothesis that she was involved in procuring fetuses?”

  Tanomogi’s nod cut short the smile forming on my lips.

  “There’s no need to take me so literally. If we don’t accept the hypothesis that a lover committed the murder, I can only suppose that Tsuchida knew something unfavorable about the murderer or had done something to him. Something so terribly bad that he had to kill the man. This information or these acts of Tsuchida’s should appear in the confession he made a while ago. In the same way, even the hypothesis about the trade in three-week-old fetuses merits consideration by its very extravagance.”

  “If only for the sake of discussion.”

  “Of course, it’s only for the sake of discussion. The three-week limit and the fetuses may be some kind of secret language. What about trying the girl on the machine? That’s the first thing to do, I think.”

  “Well now, we’ve really got involved,” I said, sighing involuntarily.

  “But we’ve come this far, and we can’t back out now. There’s no other way but to face the situation.”

  “But I wonder if we should. I wonder whether the others won’t inform the police as soon as they realize we’re interested in the girl. They wouldn’t hesitate to murder anybody if they had to.”

  “Even if we sit tight we’re going to be suspected. It’s just a question of time. You can’t expect to win unless you make the first move. And we don’t have to see her personally. We can get the committee to send a car and transfer her privately from the back door of the police station to the hospital. Interesting . . . forecasting that type of girl’s future too.”

  I had lost my bearings, my perspicacity was gone, and I was on the verge of despair. But at once I telephoned to Tomoyasu, who was on the committee, feeling like some awkward cyclist, uncomfortable unless he kept going. Tomoyasu, who was quite delighted that important personages were interested in the project, said that we had been able to get permission for the analysis of the body, so, he claimed, if we took this permission in its broadest sense, we could easily include the girl. He agreed to my proposal and obtained the chief’s permission on the spot. To his question of how things were going, I replied vaguely that the results were rather interesting. I decided to have the girl transferred from the police station to Dr. Yamamoto’s office in Central Welfare Hospital without giving out the name of the ICT. I was grateful that the transfer went smoothly, but concerned about the rapidity with which I was getting out of my depth.

  Until the girl arrived at Dr. Yamamoto’s office, I instructed the machine to break down further the results of the analysis of the dead man’s body, dividing this information into common and special factors; that is, elements common to all human beings and elements particular to this given man. When complete, the information would come in most handy. Henceforth, by analyzing only those factors peculiar to a given person and then combining them with elements common to everyone, that would be all we needed to get a whole personality. In any case, as the data were still insufficient, I was not expecting much. But the answer came with surprising ease. The elements peculiar to a man-the variables of the personality equation-were apparently more simple than I had thought. I realized that in all probability almost all variables were reducible to relative terms, to so many physical characteristics. For the brain waves too it would be sufficient just to investigate a thousand models of some twenty types. Excellent material for presenting to the committee. I typed up a list of the variables, the physical characteristics necessary for the analysis of the elements peculiar to a man. I managed to fit them on a single piece of typing paper: a succession of ordinary medical words and elementary Japanese. This was apparently something that could ultimately be called a man’s individuality.

  “Look,
Tanomogi, if we get hard pressed we can add a practical example to this paper, and I think we can hoodwink the committee the next time. What do you think?”

  “Yes, very definitely. The committee’s not really the problem. The idea of a human forecast has passed anyway.”

  “Not really. It still has only informal consent.”

  “It comes to the same thing. If you consider the committee’s attitude up to now.”

  “Yes, I suppose so, but. . .”

  I rang up Dr. Yamamoto. The girl, it seemed, had not yet arrived. When I told him of drawing up the items about the specific personality elements, he was, as I expected, unable to contain his excitement. I had him put Wada Katsuko on; I had decided to have the contents of my list fed into the electronic computer there. Tanomogi poured me some coffee. As I let the sugared liquid flow down my throat, which was smarting from too many cigarettes, I killed time for a while, musing on the rumors about the mammoth forecaster, Moscow II, we had been told, was soon to be constructed. It would apparently be charged with making an overall financial forecast for all neutral and Communist areas, covering half the world. When I thought about it, I felt wretched. In Russia, the forecasting machine towered high, a great monument of the age; but in Japan, it was merely a miserable rattrap to pursue a murderer, and the technician himself was writhing and struggling with his leg in the rat’s teeth.

  Gradually I began to be apprehensive. I waited and waited, but no call came that the girl had arrived. I decided to check through Tomoyasu.

  “But, sir, I’m counting a lot on that rattrap. 'Whatever you say, it’s the machine’s own choice, isn’t it? At any rate, the machine’s logical.”