the room. Across a large porcelain brazier, a man is sitting opposite me, reading a newspaper, my newspaper –
The Yomiuri…
The man slowly folds up the newspaper. He takes off his glasses. He puts the glasses in the breast pocket of his jacket. He sits forward in his chair. He stretches out his hands over the edge of the brazier. He looks up at me and he says, ‘I hope you brought your wallet with you?’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, the MPB have made a statement, and then another, and another, and so I write a story, and then another, and another:
WIDE MANHUNT ON FOR POISON KILLER; INVESTIGATORS WORK ON DESCRIPTION GIVEN BY 4 MASS MURDER SURVIVORS
Slayer Believed Familiar With Medicines; Assisted By Several Accomplices?
WANTED!
Description of culprit in Teikoku Bank Shiinamachi branch
mass poison murder case:
Sex: Male. Age: From 45 to 56. Height: 5 ft. 2 or 3 in.
Thin, long-faced, pale, high-nose,
crop-haired with a sprinkling of grey hair.
Brown blemish on left cheek.
Was wearing brown overcoat at time of crime.
TOKYO, Jan. 28 – With the above description of the culprit given by the four survivors as the chief clue, the Metropolitan Police Board, mobilizing its most experienced criminal investigators, is on the search for the perpetrators of one of the coldest-blooded crimes of modern times.
The search is on for the man who, as reported yesterday, posed as a health inspector and induced 16 persons at the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank to take poison, killing 12 of them.
The police base their belief (a) that the culprit was familiar with medicine and epidemic prevention and (b) that he was someone who knew the district and the bank well on the following two factors:
Dysentery cases had been reported in the district recently.
The criminal wore the armband of the Tokyo Metropolitan sanitation bureau and did not arouse any suspicion among the 16 who drank the poison.
Investigation headquarters have been established at the Mejiro police station.
The names of the victims of the mass poison slaughter have been ascertained as follows:
Those in critical condition: – Yoshida Takejiro, 42, assistant manager; Akusawa Yoshiko, 18; Murata Masako, 21; and Tanaka Norikazu, 28.
The first of the two bottles that the culprit induced his victims to drink is ascertained to have contained potassium cyanide.
The armband he wore is believed to have been one issued at the time of the recent flood disaster to students, hospitals, ward offices, and volunteer workers.
The crime is believed to have been planned by several persons in conjunction with the culprit who appeared at the bank.
Four persons who figured in a similar attempt made previously at the Nakai branch of the Mitsubishi Bank are believed to have some connection with the Teikoku Bank case.
The latest check shows that from ¥110,000 to ¥120,000 of the bank’s money are missing.
Doctor Suspected
TOKYO, Jan. 28 – Police suspicion in the Teikoku Bank mass murder case has fallen on a certain middle-aged doctor living within the jurisdiction of the Mejiro police station who fits the description given by Miss Murata Masako, one of the survivors, it is learned.
Linked With Case?
TOKYO, Jan. 28 – A man committed suicide with potassium cyanide at a hotel not far from the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank early this morning.
As the poison taken by the suicide is the same as that which killed the bank employees, the Mejiro police station is investigating whether he is connected with the mass murder case.
The suicide, who registered as Yokobe Kunio, a company official at Komagawa-mura, Iruma-gun, Saitama prefecture, put up at the Kiraku Inn at 2156 Shiina-machi 5-chōme, Toshima-ku, yesterday at about 9.30 p.m. and took the potassium cyanide today at about 6 a.m.
He was wearing a grey sweater, khaki coat, black serge trousers and black overcoat. In his wallet was only about ¥100.
His hair was not cropped.
In the Fictional City, this city of millions, millions will buy my newspaper, millions will buy my stories.
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I am back in the Seibo Hospital, back wearing a stolen white coat, back pretending to be a doctor –
Pretending, impersonating, deceiving…
Back beside her bed, her eyes closed, her hand in mine, I am whispering, ‘Can you hear me, Miss Murata…?’
There is sweat on her brow, in her hair, shadows on her cheeks, round her eyes. Her