Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen. Ellery Queen
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Nakamura testifed that, shortly after the time Ueki left the Manpaiso, he had been looking out of the window and had seen Ueki. He had not witnessed Ueki's entry into Yamagishi's house, or the murder. Therefore, his evidence was indirect.
Material evidence included the piece of firewood, and the cashbox fished out of the irrigation pond. In searching, the police had dragged the pond and recovered it. Ueki's fingerprints were not on the box. This has been explained. The following police report covers the question of prints on the firewood:
"Question: With what did you strike Jin Yamagishi on the back of the head?
"Answer: A chunk of pine log. Like they use in old-fashioned stoves.
"Question: About how long was the piece of wood?
"Answer: Maybe thirty centimeters.
"Question: Where was it? "Answer: What?
"Question: Where was the wood kept?
"Answer: Oh. Piled under the eaves behind Yamagishi's place. I'd been thinking of using it ever since I got the idea of killing him.
"Question: You mean you knew there was firewood piled in that place?
"Answer: Yes.
"Question: What did you do with the wood after the crime? "Answer: I put it back where I got it.
"Question: If we went back to where the wood is stored, could you pick out the piece you used?
"Answer: Sure, if nobody moved it.
"Question: Since the discovery of the body, the house has been in police custody. Everything's just as it was.
"Answer: Sure, then if I went there, I could pick out the piece."
In this report there are no traces of the association-game hints Ueki claimed were forced on him in the second confession. The defendant was taken back to Yamagishi's house, as the following report reveals.
"The defendant was taken behind Yamagishi's house, where he examined a pile of about thirty-five bundles of wood stacked under the eaves. He promptly picked out a piece from the second row from the top. He said, 'This is it. This is the one I used.'
"An investigator put on gloves and took the piece indicated. The defendant, too, was given gloves and held the wood in his right hand. Then he swung it two or three times to the right and left and made five or six downstrikes with it. He said, 'This is it, all right. I guess once you've used something like this, you know the feel of it, don't you?'
"In offering this evidence, the defendant was most cooperative."
Torao Ueki's efforts to help made it look almost as if he were currying favor with the police.
Harajima had not seen the full initial investigation report. He took time from his busy schedule to visit the police station. From the report, he learned that the police had narrowed their search to Ueki from the moment they received Nakamura's testimony about having seen Ueki from his bathroom window. Ueki confessed immediately after arrest. The police had been comfortably able to send in an early report.
Realizing Harajima was court-appointed counsel, the officer in charge was clearly angry when he said, "I understand the defendant's now denying his confession. What's he trying to do? It's ridiculous. The police can't be accused of using strong-arm tactics. We'd never promise to set a man free or have the case dropped if he agreed to sign a confession. We don't threaten to fight for the death penalty when a defendant denies his confession in court. When Ueki first came in here, he sat right down—told us everything about the murder, how he went in and talked to Yamagishi, how he killed him. He drew a map of Yamagishi's house, explaining it all on his own. The whole thing about the murder weapon was just as it's written up. He pointed it out to us, made a few swings with it, said he recalled the knot. He even asked us to find out if his fingerprints were on the log. He was friendly. I really don't think he could have described things so well unless he knew what he was talking about."
This business of Ueki being "friendly" made Harajima frown. Sometimes defendants cooperate with the police so they can be sent to the detention house quickly. Once there, they change their tune, claiming what they said for the police was made under duress. Maybe this was how Ueki figured things. Still he might pretend friendliness, believing the police would free him and drop the case. He certainly had cooperated.
The trial was drawing near. Stealing time from other cases, Harajima made a trip to the detention house to talk with Ueki.
Ueki was tall, reedy, with a pale, femininely gentle face. Both his shoulders and eyebrows slanted downward, giving him a kind of parallel semblance of rejection. Thin-lipped, he had a tight, narrow forehead, but he was quite polite when he met Harajima, expressing respect and gratitude that the lawyer was representing him. Especially since there was no fee. There was a certain meekness about Ueki, though none of this was in his words.
Harajima was of two minds about the man. Could such a weak-looking fellow commit murder? Still, that girlish face might conceal brutality and cunning. Although he had looked into the eyes of hundreds of defendants, Harajima wasn't always able to tell whether they were sincere.
"Torao, I've taken your case. You want the right kind of defense, you'll have to be completely frank."
"Sure, yes—understood."
Harajima hesitated, then said, "Do you still claim your first confession was a lie?"
Ueki was quick, direct. "Absolutely. Damn it, I was tricked by the police."
"Then, it's true, about the leading questions, all that?"
"Yes, yes—"
"They claim you cooperated with them, went so far as to point out the firewood to the investigators."
Ueki shook his head. "That's not so. It's like I said in the second deposition. The detectives told me just what to say."
"You'll testify to that?" "Certainly."
"Okay, then. We'll work out a defense on those lines."
Ueki's tone changed. "Mr. Harajima? I can prove the confession I made was forced from me."
"Prove?"
"Yes."
5
A smile touched Ueki's lips. "I thought of it last night in bed. I'm sure it's because you've been chosen to defend me—God graciously jogged my memory."
Harajima sighed. "What d'you mean?"
"Sure. It's about what happened before I'm supposed to have killed the old man. I heard he was on his face, turned in the direction of the next room. Lying there, like that, I mean. When I first talked with the police, I made it up that after Yamagishi'd seen me, he said a couple of words, then invited me in. That he turned to go into the other room. This is when I said I hit him with the log. Well, the police said that story wasn't any good. They kept insisting I must've sat on a cushion Yamagishi pulled out for me. Then I'd put the cushion back after the murder. So it'd look like the crime was by someone who broke in, not by a guest. They kept at it, and finally I went along. But listen—the truth is Jin Yamagishi never offered cushions to people who came to borrow money. I was there a lot and he never gave me one. You'd have to know him. Must've been like that with everybody, I bet. You can ask around."
"Why'd he have the pile of cushions in the corner?"
"For show, see? None of his customers ever sat on one. If they sat down, they'd stay too long. He liked us to leave right away, after he'd forced his conditions on us. Okay, if the talk lasted a while, then he might maybe show some kind of human feeling. Of course, that's not saying he didn't give a cushion to ordinary visitors. The detectives didn't know this."
"You have any other proof?"
"The cashbox, Mr. Harajima. I didn't know where it had been found. They said something about 'water,' so I remembered the irrigation ponds. But when I said the one on the left, they called me a fool. So I told them the one to the right. That's in the deposition I made after meeting the prosecutor. Damn it, Mr. Harajima, the fact