Hyakki Yagyou

Chapter Six: Tea, Janitor

“The rain to the wind said,

You push and I'll pelt.'

They so smote the garden bed

That the flowers actually knelt,

And lay lodged--though not dead.

I know how the flowers felt.” 

-        Robert Frost

December 9th, 8 am

When Abe came to her office, as usual not a minute late, there were several files waiting for her. Her partner was just dozing off on his chair when she dashed her purse on the table and he jumped up and rubbed his eyes, his sight blurry. Who dared to wake him so abruptly? Ah, right. It was Abe.

“Good morning to you too.” He said but she remained quiet. She closed the window. It was too cold for this. The rain had melted the snow away but the temperature was around zero this morning. Perhaps it even ventured into the minus. Who knew? The only thing she was sure of was this - she was freezing her bum off. Slowly, she turned the heater on and sat in her chair, lighting a cigarette.

If she were a country, the cigarette would be her emblem, detective Hara thought, smirking.

“What’s funny?” Abe asked.

“Nothing.”

 “What’s this paper work?” She asked, not touching the files yet.

“Ah that. It’s not paper work.” Hara said and grabbed one of the files, opening it. “There are two peculiar things I’d like to discuss. What a pity we already issued permission for the families to bury those bodies.”

“What things, what bodies?”

“Suzuki Yumi-san.” Hara said. “Do you remember…? It was maybe two years ago. A couple of school girls were bullying their classmate on the Akasaka station. The bullied girl fell on the tracks and died. A train hit her.”  He explained. “Later, the girls were questioned, to see if someone accidentally or otherwise pushed the victim but no one said a word. No chargers were lifted and the case was just closed.”

Abe nodded. She remembered the case, it was one of the first cases she was assigned to when she transferred but what had that have to do with anything? The question was clear in her eyes as she was smoking, staring at her partner.

“Well-“, he continued, “Suzuki Yumi-san was present there. She was one of those girls. I’m not saying she was a bully, but she was there. I dug out her testimony and read it all over again. She said that she was behind her peers and they were fighting. At some point, the train and the people became too loud and she was disoriented. She knew it was dangerous so she yelled for them to stop. However, they started to push around a little and before they knew it, Satomi, the victim, fell down and the train hit her.” Pause. “That was her testimony. So, she was there.”

“How is this relevant to the case, Hara?”

“The lab results came out this morning. Nakagawa finally analysed the thread we found on Suzuki’s mouth. It turns out to be unidentifiable. Nakagawa’s best guess it that it comes from some kind of a uniform. Maybe. My wildest guess is a school uniform. Doesn’t Suzuki’s school have dark uniforms?” He wondered.

“How can we know it’s just used for uniforms? It’s thread! It can be used for anything.”

“I guess there are some special materials they use for making uniforms. Uniforms usually last longer than regular clothes, don’t they? I don’t know! Ask Nakagawa. He was almost certain of it.”