Free Nocturne of Remembrance by Shichiri Nakayama Page A

purchased. He prospered at his former company and was able to get a mortgage when he was thirty or so. Conveniently, there was a real find in our neighborhood, “close enough that soup wouldn’t get cold” as Shingo put it to me, so I helped with the down payment. Still, I always thought that my son wasn’t so much sharp-eyed as prone to jump on the bandwagon. I became sure of this when I saw him not make any decent effort to find another job after his company took a turn for the worse. When the head of the household does not work, the family’s daily existence changes drastically to the extent that you can see it from the outside. Just watching the family aroused my pity, and although I thought I was being meddlesome, I frequently dropped by to see how they were doing. I particularly felt sorry for my two granddaughters. Even though their father was in the house all day after Akiko went to work, he didn’t even make any decent conversation with them. Even young children can recognize a strained relationship between their parents. Their home, which should be a place of repose, had become one of tension and hatred. But even in the middle of that mess, as I observed her, Akiko was a very accomplished daughter-in-law. She worked not only her share, but also that of my son, who had closed himself off in his room. On top of that, she diligently fulfilled her role as a mother. I thought that she was too good for Shingo.
    2. On May 5th, I received a call from Shingo’s next-door neighbor. I mean the Saito residence, which I had asked to let me know if there were any loud fights or something irregular. The idea was to mediate any quarrels, but in the worst case, I was ready to take the girls back to my house for a night. When I arrived and rang the doorbell, no one answered. The lights seemed to be on and the door was unlocked, so I entered. Calling out to Shingo and Akiko and walking through thehall, I came to the door of the dressing area, which was open in my direction, and there I discovered Shingo’s dead body. He was spread out in the nude on a blue tarp. I was speechless. From the bathroom on the other side I could hear the shower running. For a moment, I suspected that there had been a robbery, and my hand reflexively pushed open the door. There I found Akiko doggedly washing off the blood on the walls. She seemed greatly shocked to see me but immediately resigned herself, dropped what she was doing, and asked me to call the police.
    3. When I saw the wretched state of the bathroom, I thought that what I had been afraid of had occurred in the worst form possible. Shingo must have been the cause, but there was no need to kill him. His nude form was pitiful, but I knew that like on the detective dramas on TV absolutely nothing at the crime scene should be touched until the police arrived, so I calmed down Akiko, and the two of us waited together.
    4. I have described the circumstances of my discovery of the dead body to police personnel, and there is no mistake in the above. If there is anything else you need from me in the future, I will certainly cooperate.
    (Signature and thumbprint) Yozo Shingo
    The above transcript was read aloud to and reviewed by the subject who, finding no errors, affixed a signature and thumbprint.
    Sergeant Masaya Takagi, Judicial Police, Setagaya Police Station (stamp)
    Mikoshiba went back over the trial records. They were as expected. He could not find any trace of his predecessor calling Yozo Tsuda to the witness stand. Horai must have assumed that the trial would revolve around the fact of guilt at first and only made perfunctory preparations for getting the sentence reduced. What a waste—here was a witness sympathetic to the accused who had gone unused.
    Of course, even if he had been summoned, with Horai handling the defense it might not have amounted to much. How do you cajole two men and four women into seeing things your way? Rhetoric that could turn black to white, with the help of