The girl on the ground pulled herself slowly to her feet, her legs very weak.
"Don't run!" appealed the leader feebly, as one of the girls started to do so. But the rest of them panicked and followed suit. The girl who had just gotten up fell again as soon as she started down the slope. Her comrades left her sitting there covered with mud, cursing through her tears at their retreating backs.
Contacted from the campground office, the local patrolman rushed there. Reassured by the sight of him, the girls managed to collect themselves after their headlong flight and lead him and the two men from the office back to the scene. Even the mud-smeared girl, who had finally come in, sulking, joined the others at the last moment, afraid to be left alone.
The patrolman requisitioned all the rope in the office and asked the other two men to carry it. Some distance before they reached the body, he stopped everyone, then went on alone, his billy club at the ready. Having made sure the man against the tree could do him no harm, he bent over for a closer look.
The suit was certainly out of place for the scene. Though a soaked mess, it and the tie both were obviously very expensive. The man looked like he had been all dressed up for a night on the town. He appeared to be about sixty. His head was sunk on his chest and his thinning hair was hanging down over his forehead. His face, the nape of his neck, the backs of his hands—all exposed skin was blotched with death, and the odor of decay was already about him. It was obvious that he had been dead for some time.
The patrolman came back to the others and cordoned off the area by looping the rope around the surrounding trees. Leaving the two men from the campground on guard, he took the girls back to the office.
Nagano prefectural police headquarters received the first report at 10:20 A.M. Inspector Takemura was about to get into the car with his usual driver, Kinoshita, when he was stopped by Miyazaki, his superior, the head of Investigative Section One.
"Takemura, you ride with me, will you?"
"Oh? Are you going too, sir?" Takemura thought it strange that the head of Section One himself should be going out on the first report of the discovery of a body. Something must be up, he figured, but he got in beside Miyazaki without asking what.
As soon as they started, Miyazaki got on the radio to Nagano Central Station, in whose jurisdiction the body had been discovered. "Get this to all investigators headed for the scene in Imai, Togakushi Township. When they get there, they are not to approach the body, but are to see to it that the area is not disturbed. Under no circumstances is anyone to do anything until Inspector Takemura and I arrive."
The bewildered Takemura finally asked, "Something up?"
"Yeah." Miyazaki's long, narrow face became even longer and narrower as he pursed his lips and wrinkled his forehead in a deep frown before continuing. "You see, this body that's been found in Togakushi, there's a possibility that he may be a VIP."
"A VIP? Who?"
"We're only going by his age and the clothes he's wearing, but there's probably no mistake."
"Oh?"
"We think it's Kisuke Takeda."
"Takeda!" exclaimed Takemura. "You mean, the Kisuke Takeda?"
Even Takemura, unfamiliar as he was with politics and finance, had heard of Takeda, one of the top two or three businessmen in the northern part of the prefecture, a man who was sure to have his hand in any big real estate deal there. Takemura recalled hearing that Takeda had recently been involved in the promotion of a golf course near the Togakushi Ski Slope, and he supposed also that the man must be active behind the scenes in politics.
"Then there's been a missing persons search request out for Takeda?" continued Takemura.
"Yes, unofficially."
"But we haven't heard a thing about it where I am."
"That's because the chief decided that only the department heads and me and the head of Section Two needed to know. Of course, it looks like the head of Section Two had to put several people on it to begin making private inquiries."
"Which means, in other words, that we're going to have to work with Section Two on the murder, I take it?"
"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves! We don't know yet that it is a murder," said Miyazaki hastily.
* * *
It was on the morning of July 5th that the prefectural police had been informed of Kisuke Takeda's apparent disappearance. At home that day, Chief Shoichi Nagakura had received a telephone call from Governor Masagi, requesting that he pay a visit to the governor's mansion on his way to work, on a matter of the greatest urgency. The subdued voice had sounded quite unlike that of the normally frank, unaffected governor. Guessing it would take a while, Nagakura had a scheduled conference put off an hour.
He had hardly expected to find Representative Hirofumi Shishido at the governor's mansion. Shishido was a member of the ruling party, but not someone Nagakura thought much of. He was the very picture of a man one respected out of fear alone, a man not only publicly active in politics, but rumored to wield considerable power behind the scenes as well.
"Ah, Chief Nagakura, terribly sorry to have called you out so early in the morning." It was Shishido, all smiles as he stood up with extended hand, who greeted Nagakura in the reception room. For Shishido, that was hardly imaginable behavior, and Nagakura was on instant guard.
"Then this matter concerns Representative Shishido?" asked Nagakura, looking past Shishido to Governor Masagi just behind him.
"No, it doesn't, really," replied Masagi, "but Representative Shishido thought it would be better if we got you here."
Masagi would be seventy-two this year. Now past the middle of his fourth term, he was a mainstay of prefectural politics, widely supported by conservatives and liberals alike. Blessed by nature with an elegant head of silver hair, a strong, well-tanned face, and a tall muscular build, he added to those charms a reputation as a man of integrity, who could be counted on to be fair to everyone.
Shishido, on the other hand, was a man of such a different stamp that Nagakura could not imagine what he was doing there. Although he could not have been much past sixty, he looked as old as Masagi actually was. Of short build, with a considerably receded hairline and deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, he spoke suavely, but there lurked about him something so ominous that even his smile was chilling. He was a man quite capable of parting from someone with a smile and then making contemptuous threats behind the person's back.
"Actually, you see, I just heard about this myself last night," said Shishido softly, leaning forward as Nagakura sat down on the sofa, "but it seems that Kisuke Takeda has been missing since the night before last."
"Takeda? Missing?" said Nagakura hesitantly, wondering about the other man standing behind Shishido. "And this gentleman is... ?"
"Oh, don't worry about him. This is Izawa, Mr. Takeda's secretary. It was he who told me the news. Oh yes, Izawa, I guess it would be better if you told the Chief all about it yourself," said Shishido, giving his chair facing Nagakura up to Izawa and sitting himself down deep in the sofa beside Nagakura.
Nagakura could tell that Izawa was extremely tense, apparently not just because he was in the presence of three big shots, but with genuine concern about his employer's disappearance.
"Er, uh, where should I begin?" asked Izawa. As Takeda's secretary, he had to be a capable man, but his voice was shaking pitifully.
"Well, just tell me everything in order from the beginning," said Nagakura. "When did Mr. Takeda disappear, and where did he disappear from?"
"He hasn't been seen or heard from since he left the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel in Togakushi around 7 P.M. on the evening of the 3rd."
"You were in Togakushi with him, then?"
"Yes, for a meeting and party from three that afternoon, to get preparations started for the construction of the Togakushi Plateau Golf Club. The first hour and a