He left his apartment. As he walked through the lobby of his building he looked at his watch. A habit. He was five minutes behind schedule: the five minutes hed taken to sign and stamp the writ of divorce. In a mere five minutes, the bond that had connected him to his wife had been severed. He was aware of three mailboxes between his apartment and the university. Ando made up his mind to drop the envelope into the first one along the way. He hurried off to the train station.
PART ONE
Dissecting
1
Today was Andos turn on autopsy duty. In the M.E.s office, he ran his gaze over the file for his next corpse. As he compared the Polaroids of the scene, his palms started to sweat, and he had to walk over to the sink several times to wash his hands. It was mid-October and it wasnt warm, but Ando had always been a heavy sweater. He was in the habit of washing his hands several times a day.
He spread the photos out on the table once more. One in particular held his attention. In it, a stocky man sat with his head resting on the edge of a bed, the position hed been in when he stopped breathing. There were no evident external wounds. The next photo was a close-up of his face. No evidence of blood congestion, no signs of strangulation. In none of the photos could Ando find anything to establish a cause of death. Which was why, even though there was nothing to indicate a crime, the body had been sent to the M.E.s office for a post-mortem. It looked to be a sudden death, an unnatural one at that, and under the circumstances the body couldnt legally be cremated until the cause of death was discovered.
The corpse was found with both arms and both legs spread wide. Ando knew the man, knew him wellan old friend from college, whom Ando had never dreamed of having to dissect. Ryuji Takayama, whod been alive up until a mere twelve hours ago, had been a classmate of Andos through six years of medical school.
Most graduates of their program were aspiring clinicians, and when Ando decided to go into forensic medicine, people called him an oddball behind his back. But Takayama had gone even further off track. Hed led his class at med school, but after graduation hed started over as an undergraduate in the Department of Philosophy. At the time of his death, hed been a Lecturer in Philosophy, specializing in logic. Lecturer was the position Ando held in his own department. In other words, even granting that the school had let Takayama re-enroll as a junior, his rise in the department had been meteoric. Thirty-two at the time of his death, hed been two years younger than Ando, whod spent a couple of years after high school cramming to get into the university of his choice.
Andos eyes came to rest on the line where the time of death had been noted: 9:49 the previous evening.
This time of death is awfully precise, Ando said, glancing up at the tall police lieutenant who had come to observe the autopsy. As far as Ando knew, Takayama had lived alone in his apartment in East Nakano. A bachelor, living alone, dying suddenly at homeit shouldnt have been possible to get such a precise fix on the time of death.
I guess you could say we were lucky, the lieutenant said nonchalantly, seating himself in a nearby chair.
Lucky? How?
The lieutenant glanced at his companion, a young sergeant. Mai Takanos here, isnt she?
Yes, sir. I saw her outside in the waiting room.
You wanna go get her?
Yes, sir.
Shes not a relative, but shes the one who discovered the body. One of Professor Takayamas pet studentshis lover, in fact. If you find anything suspicious about her report, feel free to ask her some questions yourself. Any question, Doc.
It was policy to turn the body over to the next of kin directly following the autopsy. In Takayamas case, that would be his mother, or his brother and sister-in-law. They were out in the waiting room, where theyd been joined by Mai Takano.
The woman in question stepped into the office, then stopped and shook her head. Upon noticing her, Ando immediately stood up, bowed, and offered her a chair. I apologize for putting you through this, he said.
Mai, dressed in a plain navy dress, had a white handkerchief clutched in her hands. Ando wondered if proximity to death brought out a womans beauty. Her body was slender, her arms and legs delicate, and the subdued simplicity of her dress emphasized the paleness of her skin. Her face was a perfect oval in shape, with smooth, balanced features. Ando could see the beautiful curves of her skull without dissecting her. No doubt, beneath her skin, her organs had a healthy hue and her skeletal frame was perfectly regular. He had a sudden urge to touch them.
The lieutenant introduced them, and they exchanged names. Mai went to sit down in the chair Ando had indicated, but she faltered. She had to steady herself on the desk.
Are you alright? Ando peered at her, examining her complexion. She suddenly looked ashen under the surface whiteness of her skin. He wondered if she was anemic.
Im quite fine, thank you. She stared at a point on the floor for a while, her handkerchief pressed to her forehead, until the lieutenant brought her a glass of water. She drank it, and it seemed to calm her somewhat. She raised her head and spoke in a voice so soft Ando could hardly make it out.
Sorry, its just that Im
Ando understood immediately. She was having her period; that, plus the emotional stress, was responsible for her anemic state. If that was all, it was nothing to worry about.
It so happens that the late Mr Takayama and I were buddies back in college. He told her this partly to set her at ease.
Mai raised her eyes, downcast until now. You said your name was Dr Ando?
Yes.
She gazed intently at him. Then, with evident pleasure, she narrowed her eyes and bowed slightly as though she were meeting an old friend. Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Ando thought he knew how to interpret her expression: she probably felt she could trust his friendship with Takayama to keep him from treating the body callously. But, in truth, his friendship or lack of it with the deceased had no effect on how he wielded his scalpel.
Excuse me, Ms Takano, the lieutenant broke in. Would you mind telling the doctor exactly what you told us about how you discovered the body? He seemed determined not to let down his guard on this case just because there were no signs of foul play. There was no time to waste in exchanging fond memories of the dear departed. Hed brought Mai here for the express purpose of having her present her story to Ando. Shed been the first person to see the body, and Ando was the medical examiner in charge of the autopsy. Hopefully between them they could establish the cause of death. That was why they were gathered here today.
In a hushed tone, Mai began to tell Ando more or less the same story shed told the police the night before.
I had just gotten out of the bath and was blow-drying my hair when the phone rang. I looked at my watch immediately. I suppose its a habit of mine. If I know what time it is when the phone rings, I can usually guess who it is. Professor Takayama rarely called me; usually, I called him. And he hardly ever called after nine oclock. So, at first, I didnt think it was him. I picked up the receiver, said Hello, and a moment later I heard a scream from the other end of the line. At first I thought it was a prank. I held the phone away from my ear, in surprise, but then the scream faded into a moan, and then it gave out altogether. I felt like I was wrapped in in a stillness not of this world I brought the receiver back to my ear and listened for signs of anything, all the while dreading what I might find out. And then, suddenly, like a switch flicking on, Professor Takayamas face was in my mind. I recognized the scream. It sounded like him. I hung up the phone and then dialed his number, but the line was busy. And so I concluded that it was he who had called, and that something bad had happened to him.
In a hushed tone, Mai began to tell Ando more or less the same story shed told the police the night before.
I had just gotten out of the bath and was blow-drying my hair when the phone rang. I looked at my watch immediately. I suppose its a habit of mine. If I know what time it is when the phone rings, I can usually guess who it is. Professor Takayama rarely called me; usually, I called him. And he hardly ever called after nine oclock. So, at first, I didnt think it was him. I picked up the receiver, said Hello, and a moment later I heard a scream from the other end of the line. At first I thought it was a prank. I held the phone away from my ear, in surprise, but then the scream faded into a moan, and then it gave out altogether. I felt like I was wrapped in in a stillness not of this world I brought the receiver back to my ear and listened for signs of anything, all the while dreading what I might find out. And then, suddenly, like a switch flicking on, Professor Takayamas face was in my mind. I recognized the scream. It sounded like him. I hung up the phone and then dialed his number, but the line was busy. And so I concluded that it was he who had called, and that something bad had happened to him.
So you and Ryuji didnt have any sort of conversation? Ando asked.
She shook her head. No. I just heard that scream.
Ando scribbled something on a memo pad and urged her to continue. What happened next?
I went to his apartment to see what had happened. It took me about an hour to get there, by train. And when I went in he was there, by the bed in the room past the kitchen
The front door was unlocked?
Hed given me a key. She said this with a certain artless bashfulness.
No, what I mean isit was locked from the inside, then?
Yes, it was.
So then, you went in, Ando prompted her.
Professor Takayama had his head on the bed, facing up, his arms and legs spread out. Her voice caught. She shook her head vigorously as if to repel the scene replaying itself before her eyes.
Ando hardly needed her to elaborate. He had the photos before him. They spoke of Ryujis lifeless body more eloquently than words could.
Ando used the pictures as a fan to send a breeze over his sweaty brow. Was there anything different about the room?
Nothing that I noticed Except, the phone was off the hook. I could hear a whining sound coming from it.
Ando tried to collate the information hed gleaned from the incident report and Mais story to reconstruct the situation. Ryuji had sensed something was wrong with him and had called his lover, Mai Takano. He must have hoped she could help him. But then why hadnt he called 911? You have a sudden pain in your chestif you have the time and strength to use the phone, normally your first call would be for an ambulance.
Who dialed 911?
I did.
From where?
Professor Takayamas apartment.
And he hadnt done so, correct? Ando shot a glance at the lieutenant, who nodded. Hed already confirmed that there had been no request for an ambulance from the deceased.
Ando briefly considered the possibility of a suicide. Distraught at his lovers cruel treatment of him, a man decides to take his own life and swallows poison. He decides to call the woman whos driven him to it, to accuse and torment her. Instead, all he can manage is a dying scream.
But, according to the report, suicide didnt seem to be a possibility. There were no signs on the scene of anything that might have contained poison, nor any proof that Mai had taken such an object away from the premises. Besides, one look at the shape she was in dispelled any such suspicions. One had to be quite obtuse to the subtleties of relations between the sexes not to see at a glance how deeply Mai Takano had respected her professor. The moistness that welled up in her eyes now and then was not due to guilt about having driven her lover to take his own life; it came from profound sorrow at the thought of never being able to touch his body again. For Ando, it was like looking in a mirror; he confronted his own grief-stricken face every morning. That kind of devastation couldnt be faked. Then there was the fact that shed come down to the M.E.s office to claim the body after the autopsy. But most important of all, Ando couldnt imagine a guy as dauntless as Ryuji Takayama killing himself over something like a break-up.
Which left the heart or the head.
Ando had to look for signs of sudden heart failure or cerebral hemorrhaging. Of course, he couldnt rule out the possibility that an examination of the stomach contents would turn up potassium cyanide. Or signs of food poisoning, or carbon monoxide poisoning, or one of the other unexpected causes that he occasionally came across. But his suspicions had never been far off the mark before. Takayama had sensed something wrong with him all of a sudden, and hed wanted to hear his girlfriends voice one last time. But there hadnt been enough time to do more than scream before his heart stopped beating. That had to be it more or less.
The technician who was assisting Ando that day poked his head into the office and said, Doctor, everythings ready.
Ando stood and said, to no one in particular, Well, time to get started.
One way or another, hed have the facts once hed dissected the body. Hed never failed to establish a cause of death before. In no time, hed figure out what had killed Takayama. The thought that he might not didnt even cross his mind.
2
The autumn morning sunlight slanted into the hallway leading to the autopsy room. There was something dark and dank about the corridor, nonetheless, and as they walked, their rubber boots made a sickening sound. There were four of them: Ando, the technician, and the two policemen. The rest of the staffanother assistant, the recorder, and the photographerwere already in the autopsy room.
When they opened the door, they could hear the sound of running water. The assistant was standing at the sink next to the dissecting table, washing instruments. The faucet was abnormally large, and water cascaded from it in a thick, white column. The 350-square-foot floor was already covered with water, which was why all eight of them, including the two police witnesses, wore rubber boots. Usually, the water was left running for the duration of the autopsy.
On the dissecting table, Ryuji Takayama awaited them, stark naked, his white belly protruding. He was about five-three, and between the layer of fat around his middle and the muscles on his shoulders and chest, he was built like an oil drum. Ando lifted the bodys right arm. No resistance, other than gravity. Proof that life had indeed left the body. This man had once prided himself on the strength of his arms, and now Ando could move them about as freely as he would a babys. Ryuji had been the strongest of any of them in school; nobody was a match for him at arm-wrestling. Anybody who challenged him found his arm slapped flat on the table before he could even flex his biceps. Now, that same arm was powerless. If Ando let go, itd flop helplessly onto the table.
He turned his gaze to the lower torso, to the exposed genitalia. The penis was shriveled amidst thick black pubic hair, and the glans was almost entirely hidden by the foreskin. The member was incredibly small, almost cute, given the robustness of the body. Ando found himself wondering if Ryuji and Mai had been able to have normal sexual relations at all.