Death Sentences (26 page)

Sakakibara's question was mumbled, half to himself, but the woman shook her head firmly.

"He left the house in a complete mess ... and if he were going on a trip, he would have said something to me."

She now asked him a question.

"Do you have any idea? Before I lost contact with him, there was something strange about him. And so maybe ... he started taking some kind of drugs ... and was getting addicted or something?"

Her tone was pleading.

"Drugs? Had he been using anything like that?"

"No, but I don't know. It's just that lately he kept saying that he was busy, so busy, and I started to wonder ..."

"There's no way," Sakakibara declared firmly. "He wasn't that kind of person-"

"I know ... I really didn't think so either but . .

"In any case ... there's this ..."

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sakakibara explained why he had come.

. . and so I've been having trouble getting this payment to him."

"I see, well, in that case ..."

She disappeared inside.

She returned and handed him a slip of paper.

"Here's the information for his bank account-"

"Thanks. That really helps."

"I was just cleaning up his room, and he'd left everything in a drawer, his bank book, his cards, all of it. Don't you think it odd?"

He didn't really have any answers to her questions. He asked for her phone number in case he learned where he'd gone or heard from him. Her number began with 045, which meant she lived in Yokohama.

"Well,

As he was leaving, she called out after him.

"I am so worried, I was thinking of filing a missing person report with the police ... what do you think?"

If she was that worried, that was probably a good idea-and with those words he left her.

They spent the afternoon in Yokohama, where Keiko did some shopping, and after dinner in Chinatown, they checked into a Holiday Inn. They had had a bit too much to drink.

And of course they were exhausted. As soon as they slipped into bed, they realized just how tired they were.

At the same time, maybe because he was tired, he continued to think about what the woman at Fujisawa's house had said about "drugs."

(Drugs...?)

It was possible ... it was surprising, but surely that was the secret reason for his disappearance.

He had been very reliable. And so, it wasn't unlikely that, in struggling to meet his deadlines for work, he had started to depend on drugs of some kind.

And that explained it-that was the reason that he seemed so out of it when he had last talked with him on the phone.

He seemed whacked out on something at the time.

He fell asleep with his mind still going in circles around Fujisawa.

The next day they made a leisurely return to Tokyo on Route i. Riding double on motorcycles was not permitted on the main highways.

On Monday, when he arrived at the office, a large envelope was sitting on his desk.

It turned out to be the galleys. It was the second set of "The Gold of Time," proofed by Kuwamura.

But Kuwamura himself hadn't come in yet.

Apparently, he had come in to work on Saturday or Sunday, had left this, and returned home.

But why would he do that?

And there was no good reason for his storming out on Friday. What was going on with him? Was he upset about something at work? Or he was having some personal difficulties?

Sakakibara gave the galleys to Kojima who returned them to the printers.

It was now eleven o'clock.

He had a lunch appointment with Tsujimi, the head of Seito today.

About the time he was thinking of going home to change into a suit for his meeting, Kuwamura finally showed up.

His eyes were dilated. He was unsteady on his feet.

He approached Sakakibara's desk before he could call him over.

"What's going on, what-?"

In response Kuwamura beamed rapturously, mouth twisted into a grin. Then he drew his face close to Sakakibara's, whispering.

"Did you read it?"

"Read what?"

"'The Gold of Time.'"

"Well ... not exactly. I sent it off to the printers right away."

"I see."

Kuwamura's eyelids fluttered, as if in disappointment.

"But you will look at it sometime, won't you?"

What a strange thing to say.

Was he drunk?

(Drunk-!?) (Of course not!)

"Sakakibara, you probably know all about it anyway. Isn't that why you gave the galleys to me, as an experiment?"

A shock ran through Sakakibara.

(As an experiment?)

What does he mean? (Is it possible-?) Had he too seen it?

Kuwamura drew his face even closer.

"It's all right, Sakakibara, it's all right ... even if you didn't know, you'll understand soon enough. Until then, I'll be go

As his words trailed off, Kuwamura broke into a rapturous grin.

His breath didn't smell of alcohol.

If he were high on something else, however ... and if the reason that he couldn't help losing himself was ... was the ghost of Kasadera ...

Beads of sweat broke out on Sakakibara's face.

"Kuwamura, what the hell are you talking about-!? I have no idea what you're trying to get at-"

Kuwamura cut him off sharply, smiling all the while.

"It's all right, all right ...'

"What's all right?"

"I kept a copy of it. So, now, I'm free."

"Free?"

"Right ... I'm going to travel ... far ... very far away ...'

"And what are you going to do about work while you're traveling!?"

None of it made sense. Before he knew it, Sakakibara had started shouting at him.

"Work ... my work is done. As of today, I am resigning."

Kuwamura said it so casually. And then he added, `Just a little bit more, and I'll catch up to Fujisawa ... I can feel

"Fujisawa? You mean Fujisawa Satoru!?"

Staring off into space, his eyes those of a man dreaming, Kuwamura nodded slightly.

"You know where Fujisawa is?"

"No ... I don't. But, it won't be long, I'll be with him."

With these words, Kuwamura stood up abruptly.

"Well, then, farewell."

"Wait! Where are you going?"

Kuwamura smiled.

"I haven't much time. Or, rather, I do. But you tend to get lost when you have too much time. I have to go before I get lost ..."

"What are you talking about!? I just don't-"

"I understand ... really I do. I already ... well, maybe not quite yet ... but I am beginning to understand ... very soon ... very ... soon!"

"Wait!"

But Kuwamura had already left.

And he wouldn't come back again.

6

In the month of September, Undiscovered Century: ANationalEx- hibition on theAge of Surrealism had a resplendent opening at the main branch of the Seito department store chain in Ikebukuro.

The symbol chosen to promote the opening, Breton's trunk, became an overnight sensation, turning up in every medium all at once-television, newspapers, magazines, posters.

Andre Breton and surrealism weren't the sort of thing to draw a large crowd.

And so, not surprisingly, the large ad campaign had been mounted in an entirely entrepreneurial spirit with no concern for artistic merit.

The exhibition became the "autumn theme" for the Seito stores.

The twenty-first century was almost at hand.

As such, the twentieth century had become a thing of the past or, more precisely, a figure of nostalgia.

It was in this sense truly "undiscovered" and "unfinished."

The basic idea of Seito's campaign was to draw on the vitality of these previously unknown materials, tapping into them as a new source for fashions and lifestyles.

In more concrete terms, this meant renewing an older vogue for Paris and for the cultivated French lifestyle, which had gradually been forgotten in Japan.

Seito's strategy could also be seen as an attempt to revive the high modern style by building on American-style commercialization while tapping into a latent demand.

In the overall scheme of things, the exhibition was the initial sally of their commercial strategy.

It was supposed to serve as the impetus for a new consumer trend.

These initiatives were to culminate in a massive yearend sale that Seito would style as a sort of "thank-you celebration."

And so the exhibition opening had been calculated to make a big splash.

In Seito's view of things, while Breton's trunk functioned as a symbol of the days gone by, it could also be seen as a magic box full of things unknown. It was nothing more or less than that.

Surrealism and its avant-garde spirit were considered somewhat passe, empty, and eccentric pursuits.

Yet due to the massive campaign, the exhibition itself had met with great success.

After spending early September in Ikebukuro, it moved to Shibuya for the rest of the month before moving on to Kichijoji in October, after which its countrywide tour of major cities began.

Responsibility for supervising the entire exhibition fell to Kirin.

At least two Kirin employees had to be on site at each venue.

But they were responsible for more than simply managing and supervising.

They were also in charge of selling a variety of pamphlets and the Undiscovered Materials books they had edited.

After all, even if it was a cultural event, the sponsor was a department store. They had to make a return on the money they had laid out.

The exhibition moved on a weekly basis, to Chiba, Yokohama, Osaka, and Fukuoka, and then Sendai, Niigata, and Sapporo, until it came successfully to an end in mid-December.

During this time Kirin Publishers hired new employees, for there was an increase of close to 8o percent in the actual number of working hours.

Sakakibara even pulled Keiko into things, and they flew around the country, to Chiba, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo.

But there was an end to it.

With the publication of Languages of Surrealism just in time for the last exhibition at the end of November, four volumes of Undiscovered Materials had appeared in print, with a total sale of sixty thousand volumes.

It helped that they had reduced the price with each new volume, but even so the sale figures were quite surprising for such serious materials.

As they had expected, the biggest seller was the second volume, Images of Surrealism, with its wealth of color illustrations, while the fourth volume, Languages ofSurrealism, had sold only about fifteen hundred copies, since it consisted only of texts and had been on sale for a shorter period.

All in all, however, it was not a bad start. If one included the sales in bookstores, they had sold more than five thousand copies within the first two weeks after the release.

It was all surely due to the power of mass media, of television and newspapers.

The Seito department store campaign, based thematically on twentieth-century avant-gardism and surrealism, entered into the general consciousness of fashion, attracting readers to the Undiscovered Materials series who would not normally have had anything to do with Kirin publications.

How many of them actually opened the book and read any of it was an entirely different question.

In any event, having poured its energies into Seito's massive campaign, Kirin Publishers had been amply rewarded.

On the day that Languages of Surrealism, with its carefully edited poetry, stories, and other literary materials, appeared in print, Sakakibara was in Fukuoka with Keiko.

It was Friday, and for the following day and day after, Saturday and Sunday, the exhibition was to move north to Sendai. Miyagami and Hojo were scheduled to take over for them there.

Kojima called them in Fukuoka.

"The fourth volume is out. You should receive fifty copies by special delivery tomorrow. How are things there?"

"Pretty good, actually, pretty good. How did the book turn out?"

"It's really beautiful. It's the best cover so far."

Breton's trunk also served as an emblem for the Undiscovered Materials series.

An image of the trunk figured on the lower half of the cover, while the upper half featured artwork by a Japanese artist on the theme of surrealism. The images were supposed to vie for attention.

A new woman artist had done the artwork for the cover of the fourth volume.

Sakakibara had only caught a glimpse of the image before the book went to press.

He was really looking forward to seeing how it looked on the actual book.

The next day past noon a package arrived, special delivery.

The cover really did catch the eye. That's surely why they sold twenty books in no time. And they were sold out by the time the exhibit closed on Sunday.

As a consequence, Sakakibara returned to Tokyo without having an opportunity to peruse the fourth volume.

The following weekend, two suicides happened in quick succession in Fukuoka. Both were female students attending a local high school who threw themselves off a building.

One of them thought she was a bird: she jumped off the roof of a building flapping her arms, crashed to the ground, and died.

Neither one of them left behind any sort of note.

In Tokyo, one of the proofreaders at the printing offices vanished without a trace.

Sakakibara had been away from Tokyo quite awhile.

After his efforts for the exhibition in Osaka and Fukuoka, he was physically and mentally exhausted.

Keiko, who had accompanied him, felt even more drained.

When they flew back from Fukuoka, Sakakibara had Keiko go home ahead of him and went to check on things at the office.

Miyagami and Hojo had left for Sendai that morning.

Kojima hadn't come in. Wakabayashi Kyoko had no idea why. He was probably just skipping.

It looked like all hell had broken loose in the office during the twenty days he had been gone.

Probably he was just feeling tired.

Tsujimi had called him.

It was another invitation for lunch, no doubt.

He had really wanted to take the next day off and rest, but it hardly seemed possible.