A Cop's Eyes Read online




  Keiji no Manazashi © 2012 Gaku Yakumaru. All rights reserved.

  First published in Japan in 2012 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.

  Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.

  Published by Vertical, Inc., New York, 2016

  Originally published in Japanese as Keiji no Manazashi in 2011 and reissued in paperback in 2012

  eISBN 978-1-941220-58-0

  Vertical, Inc.

  451 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor

  New York, NY 10016

  www.​vertical-inc.​com

  v3.1

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Black Record

  Heartless

  Pride

  Day Off

  Rice Omelet

  Scar

  A Cop’s Eyes

  About the Author

  Black Record

  Shinichi Koide was loitering around the front shopping street of Otsuka station.

  It was already getting dark. When he saw a lighted bar sign, a strong temptation to have a drink came rushing to him, but he decided against it. If he drank now, he would likely drink himself into a stupor.

  Since half a year ago, Shinichi had been working at an izakaya pub in Ikebukuro, but he’d just been dismissed by the manager.

  It happened right when he thought he was finally getting used to the work. He’d heard that business hadn’t been good lately. Even so, he resented that out of all the many employees, he was the one laid off. Why, when he’d worked harder at this job than any other? When he pressed the manager for a reason, the mealy-mouthed answer was that times were hard and it couldn’t be helped.

  When Shinichi saw the manager’s expression, he sensed it. There was only one reason. The manager had gotten wind of his past.

  It was always like this. No matter how many times he tried to start his life over, his past, his black record, always got in the way.

  The manager said they’d postpone the dismissal for a month so that he could find a different job in that time. Shinichi had kicked over a nearby chair and rushed out of the pub. Since then, he’d been walking aimlessly.

  He passed by the front of a gaming arcade and stopped. When he looked at the crane game sitting outside, the prizes in it were new. They were dolls of a rabbit character called Momo-chan that was popular among children.

  Thinking of bringing one home to Haruna, he put in a hundred-yen coin.

  He focused on the dolls piled in the case and fixed his aim. When he pressed the button with perfect timing, the crane grabbed the doll in his sights and dropped it down the chute.

  Today had sucked, but at least for this game, the gods hadn’t abandoned him. Shinichi was great at it. He’d improved from playing time and time again to get gifts for Haruna, his niece whom he lived with.

  He put the vinyl doll into his jacket pocket and headed to his East Ikebukuro apartment, which was a twenty-minute walk away.

  In a dim alley of the residential area, he spotted a small figure wearing a school backpack.

  “Mai,” he called to her back, and the girl’s shoulders twitched and she stopped in her tracks. Mai Yokose slowly turned around with a tense expression.

  Calling out to her in a desolate alley must have startled her.

  “Haruna’s big brother,” Mai said, her face relaxing.

  She seemed to think Shinichi was Haruna’s brother, but he didn’t bother to correct her. It was better than being called an uncle.

  “You’re not with Haruna today?” Shinichi asked while walking with Mai.

  Mai and Haruna were classmates in the fourth grade and also went to the same cram school. But when he saw the two walking together, they hardly looked the same age. Mai was taller than Haruna, and unlike Haruna, who was always noisy, she lacked the characteristic bright perkiness of a child. Perhaps her large, somehow melancholic eyes were what made her seem more mature than her age.

  “Yeah. I had some shopping to do, so we said bye partway.”

  Mai and her father lived together in a nearby house. It was a fairly impressive one. According to Haruna, who’d gone there to play, they had a large TV, an expensive-looking video camera, and such. Shinichi didn’t know what the father did, but as the landlord of the apartment building that Shinichi and Haruna lived in, the family couldn’t be struggling.

  “Don’t tell me you’re the one who makes dinner?” Shinichi said, glancing at the bag of groceries hanging from her right hand.

  “Not every day, but sometimes …”

  “Good for you. I wish Haruna would follow your example.”

  Haruna lived with her single mother, but he’d never seen her help with the housework. Shinichi’s older sister, Naoko, often scolded Haruna to at least clean up the messes she made.

  Near a street corner, two housewives were muttering something while looking their way. In this day and age, merely walking with a little girl raised eyebrows. If there weren’t people around, Shinichi would have walked Mai home, but he decided to split and head back to his own apartment.

  “Mai, I’ll give you this.”

  Shinichi pulled out the doll he’d won at the crane game out of his pocket.

  “Are you sure?” Mai asked, tempted.

  “It’s a reward. Because you’re being so good by helping around your house.”

  “Thank you, Haruna’s big brother.”

  Mai put on a smile as she took it.

  After seeing off her receding figure, Shinichi walked home to his apartment.

  When he opened the sliding door, a scream rang out.

  Haruna was in the middle of changing in the Japanese-style room they used as a bedroom.

  “Shin, at least knock!”

  She looked furious as she threw a stuffed animal at him.

  “You’re so dramatic.”

  Without heeding her, Shinichi took off his jacket and put it on a hanger.

  “I’m a woman, so treat me with proper delicacy,” she said cheekily.

  Until just the other day, she’d been running around the room naked and pestering him to take a bath with her. Recently, though, she seemed overly sensitive to his gaze. Was it what they called the onset of puberty?

  He took a beer out of the fridge and went to the other room, which had the low table and TV.

  The three of them—Naoko, Haruna, and Shinichi—lived in this old two-room apartment that had been built nearly thirty years ago. It was by no means easy living, but to Shinichi, the peace and quiet were irreplaceable.

  He heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

  “I wonder if there was a fire somewhere,” Haruna came and asked.

  “No, that’s not a fire truck. It’s a police car,” he replied from bitter memory.

  As the sound of the siren came closer, he became uneasy. The neighborhood was on the lonely side, and apparently, molestation cases weren’t rare.

  He became worried and emailed Naoko on his phone. The immediate reply was that she had overtime and would be a little late.

  As he watched Naoko’s back while she cleaned up after dinner in the kitchen, Shinichi looked for a chance to start his conversation. Haruna was in the bath by herself.

  “Hey, sis,” he called to Naoko, and she turned around. “I quit my job today. This month, I might not be able to bring that much money home, but I will next month, all right?”

  He’d tried his best to make it sound like nothing, but Naoko looked at him with surprise. “Why? You liked that place so much.”

  Her expression gradually clouded. Maybe she was going over why he might have quit.

  “There was a guy I didn’t like and I got in a fight.”

  He couldn’t bring himself to tell
her he’d been dismissed.

  Since he’d left reform school nine years ago, he’d been meaning to work hard but changed jobs time and again for the same old reason. On every such occasion he felt like cursing his black record, but he could never gripe about it to Naoko.

  “I’ll start looking again tomorrow, so yeah.”

  “Do you want me to ask at work?” Naoko worked at a flower shop near Ikebukuro station.

  “No …” If they found out about his record, Naoko might suffer too—but he swallowed those words. “Early mornings aren’t for me.”

  Beyond that, neither of them managed to get out a word. As though to break the heavy silence, the doorbell rang.

  With some relief, Shinichi turned his eyes to the door.

  “Coming.” His sister went and opened it with the chain still in place.

  “Excuse us for bothering you at such a late hour. We’re police …”

  At the word, Naoko’s shoulders twitched, and her eyes turned to Shinichi.

  He didn’t recall doing anything at all to warrant this visit. Even so, his heart shriveled and ached. When Naoko removed the chain and opened the door all the way, he saw two men in suits standing there.

  “There was an incident nearby, so we’d like to ask a few things,” one of the men said.

  Feeling intense palpitations, Shinichi stood up and headed to Naoko’s side.

  The man continued, “Are you acquainted with the Yokoses who live nearby?”

  “Yokose … You mean the landlord of these apartments?” replied Naoko.

  The detective who was doing the talking was well-built and imposing. Yet the tall one behind him was the one whose sight sent an intense shock through Shinichi.

  For a moment, he doubted his eyes, but when they met the man’s as he glanced back, Shinichi felt certain.

  Nobuhito Natsume—somehow he remembered the name.

  Why was he here? It was beyond confusing.

  It seemed Natsume had also recognized Shinichi, and relaxing his expression somewhat, he greeted Shinichi with just his eyes.

  “A resident who got home called to report that there was a dead body at the Yokoses’ …”

  “Did Mai make the report?” Naoko asked with a pained expression.

  “Yes. The deceased is her father, Toru Yokose.”

  “And how is Mai …” Naoko barely managed.

  “Currently, she is in police custody. But having found her father in such a state, she seems too shocked to answer—”

  “Why in the world …” Shinichi interrupted without thinking.

  “It appears that he was murdered with a solid blow to his head.”

  Murdered—Shinichi gulped when he heard the word.

  “At this time, given the condition of the room, we believe that it was a burglary. We have eyewitness reports of Mr. Yokose getting home around six … Did you see any suspicious persons in the vicinity around that time?”

  “I was working past seven and only came home a little before eight.”

  “Where are you employed?” the detective asked Naoko, and she gave them the flower shop’s name and address. Natsume, hanging behind, jotted them down.

  “I saw Mai there just before she got home,” Shinichi mumbled.

  “Wha-” Naoko looked at him. “You did?”

  “Yeah …”

  “What time was that?” the detective asked.

  “I think around six twenty.”

  After receiving the doll from Shinichi, Mai had gone home smiling. Immediately after that, she’d found her dad murdered. It hurt him to imagine her shock.

  “Did you happen to see any suspicious persons at that time?”

  “Not really … Just two housewives standing around and talking.”

  “By the way, where were you before that?”

  The detective’s eyes seemed to sharpen. An alibi?

  Natsume took one step forward and opened his mouth for the first time. “Please don’t be offended. As far as that goes, we ask everyone we talk to.”

  Shinichi candidly shared his actions before and after six o’clock: loitering near Otsuka station, playing the arcade crane game before heading home.

  The detectives listened in silence, but Shinichi felt more and more anxious even as he spoke.

  He realized he didn’t have a decisive alibi. He hadn’t dropped by a store. He hadn’t run into an acquaintance. As for the arcade, he’d only played the crane game outside. There hadn’t been any spectators, either.

  Naoko was looking at Shinichi with worry.

  “Is there anyone who can testify about that for you?”

  Shinichi could only lower his eyes at the detective’s question.

  As he did, he caught a glimpse of Naoko’s hands. They were trembling slightly.

  Perhaps she, too, feared that the detectives might zero in on Shinichi.

  Even after getting into bed, he couldn’t begin to calm down.

  Next to him, he could hear Haruna breathing softly, asleep.

  “Sis, you awake?” Shinichi murmured, looking up at the dim ceiling.

  “Yeah.”

  “I … knew one of those detectives.”

  “Huh?” Naoko sounded surprised.

  “He’s a judiciary technical officer called Natsume who handled my case at juvie.”

  “Why would someone from …”

  “I’m not sure. Why would that man—”

  “It’s okay, Shin … You have nothing to worry about,” Naoko said, sensing Shinichi’s anxiety.

  But the more he recalled Natsume’s relentless gaze, which tried to wade into your heart, the less calm he felt.

  Eleven years ago, Shinichi had been arrested for murdering his uncle. It was when he was fifteen. After the police interrogation, he was placed in a juvenile detention center. Natsume, who was charged with him, asked about his family environment, personal relationships, and mindset leading up to the crime in minute detail.

  Unlike the interrogation by the police, Natsume’s attitude throughout the interviews was gentle. With a warm, enveloping gaze, he listened to Shinichi talk about his background. Natsume was a type of adult that Shinichi hadn’t met before.

  But he only felt creeped out by the man’s warmth. It could all be a trick to peek into his heart. Shinichi absolutely couldn’t let his guard down, not against this man, and stuck to ambiguous replies, stubbornly refusing to show his true self during the interviews.

  All he ever said face to face with Natsume was that adults were repulsive; that he hadn’t come across a decent grownup; that the only one he could look up to was his sister, who was three years older than him.

  Shinichi didn’t remember much about his parents, who passed away in a traffic accident when he was five. He and Naoko had been taken in by their only relative, Yuya Kimura, their mother’s younger brother.

  But this Kimura was scum.

  A single man, he was gainfully employed, but it seemed he showed completely different faces to the outside world and in the house. If he didn’t like anything, he didn’t hesitate to raise his hand at Shinichi and Naoko and to allow only the barest of meals, during which he’d place the plate on the floor and not let them eat until they obediently pretended to be dogs. Through intense violence, and by completely shattering their self-esteem, Kimura dominated their young minds and bodies. That abuse continued for ten years.

  Although Naoko was doing well as a student, she gave up on high school and started working at a hamburger shop. With that salary, she provided for Shinichi, buying meals for his growing appetite and whatever else he needed. Their wan wish then was to run away in a few years.

  When Shinichi was fifteen, Naoko confided to him that a certain man had proposed to her. She’d been dating him without telling Kimura. A full-time employee at the burger shop, Isobe seemed to be sincere about Naoko, and even wanted Shinichi to come live with them until he graduated from high school once they got married.

  But when Kimura found out, he attempted to mess ev
erything up. It was then that Shinichi realized his uncle’s true wickedness.

  Shinichi didn’t think the action he took was a mistake.

  Murder was bad. He knew that. But he didn’t think killing someone was the worst thing a person could do. More insidious and wicked people existed in the world.

  After he turned himself in to the police, Shinichi couldn’t stop worrying about Naoko. He thought Isobe might leave her because her younger brother had been arrested. Yet, Naoko and Isobe got married, and while Shinichi was in reform school, Haruna was born.

  Shinichi meant to set out on his own after leaving the reformatory. He wanted Naoko to be happy.

  But by the time he did, Naoko had broken up with Isobe and was living alone with Haruna. She wouldn’t tell him why, either.

  Was it the stigma of a murderer pinned on him, or were the deep scars she’d received at Kimura’s hands the distant cause—

  On the morning of the next day, with a job search magazine in hand, Shinichi made many calls. He contacted around twenty companies, but as expected, most of them demurred. Even so, one promised him an interview.

  Shinichi hurriedly wrote his resume, got dressed, and headed to the food manufacturer located in Komagome.

  He was rejected. When they asked him what he’d done after graduating from middle school, the endpoint of his educational history, for the first time Shinichi told them the truth. Even if he managed to be hired, he was sick and tired of being let go when they inevitably learned about his past. Maybe some people were ready to judge him by who he was now.

  But that fleeting hope was quickly dashed. Chewing over his disappointment, he got off the train at Otsuka station.

  When he came to the crane game outside the station-front arcade, he stopped.

  It was a day with no yields, but he could bring Haruna a gift at least. That morning, Naoko had told her about the case at Mai’s, and it had wrecked Haruna.

  Inserting a hundred-yen coin, he hit the button with perfect timing and netted a Momo-chan doll just like the day before.

  “Bravo.”

  Shinichi turned around in surprise at the voice. Natsume was watching him with a smile on his face.

  “Wow, in one try. I wanted that doll too and tried several times, but forget it.”