name of Susobana, and the river itself is still beautiful too, with fantastic crags jutting out everywhere along its course, and seasonal changes still visible in the folds of mountains along its western shore. This is in spite of the arched dam completed across its upper reaches in 1969 and the large-scale housing developments appearing in the mountains along its western shore, resulting in a decreased flow and poorer quality water.
At the northern edge of Nagano City, the river makes a sharp turn to the west and extends in a practically straight line toward the Togakushi Mountains, where lies its source.
The police car with Miyazaki and Takemura followed the national highway upstream from this bend for about fifteen kilometers, the river flowing faster and the valley getting deeper all the way, to the confluence with the Kusu River flowing in from the north. From this point, scattered farmhouses were visible on the surrounding hills. Now called Tochihara and located in Togakushi Township, it was once known as Shigarami Village, supposedly taking its name from the shigarami, or weir, that legend has it the demoness Maple built there to keep out the enemy forces.
Leaving the national highway at Tochihara and heading north for about two kilometers to the village of Imai, they reached the scene at 11 A.M. The path up the mountain had been closed, and a crowd of investigators, early-bird reporters, and curious spectators were gathered at the barricade.
The reporters peered into their car as it pulled up, amidst such comments as "Hey, the head of Section One is here himself!" "And Inspector Takemura too!" "Must be somebody important dead up there!" Takemura had to give them credit for their intuition.
An area of radius fifty meters from the site had been roped off, and uniformed and plain-clothes police were waiting outside it. From among them, Chief of Detectives Tsuneda of Nagano Central Station approached.
"You got here fast," said Tsuneda. "We just arrived ourselves. Do you want the CID men to begin right away?"
"Yes, but could you have them first open a path to the body, so we can get over there to identify it?" requested Miyazaki.
"Sure."
Tsuneda set his men immediately to checking a path to the body for footprints and such. The work went unexpectedly fast, because there was practically nothing worth looking at. The whole area was forest, with weeds covering the ground, and there were signs of trampling, but nothing like an identifiable footprint.
"It's no good," said Inspector Kojima of CID, going in and motioning to them to follow. Kojima was a veteran, referred to by the venerable title of "old," and with his white hair and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, he did indeed look like he had quite a few years on him, but the truth was that he was in his middle forties. Takemura had known him since the case of the dismembered corpse three years ago, and in spite of the difference in their ages, the two were quite congenial.
Avoiding the plaster that had been poured here and there, the group walked over to the body. Miyazaki kneeled down beside it for a good look.
"There's no mistake," he said with a sigh.
"It's Takeda?" asked Takemura.
"That's right. Kisuke Takeda," replied Miyazaki without turning around.
"Kisuke Takeda? You mean, the Takeda!" said Tsuneda and Kojima practically as one, looking at each other. Now they understood why Miyazaki was there in person.
"Okay, get started with your inspection. I've got to report in," said Miyazaki, rushing down the slope.
Shortly thereafter, the medical examiner arrived. "He's been dead for three or four days," judged the experienced doctor right off, after pressing the purple-spotted skin.
"That would mean he was dead by July 4th, right?" said Takemura.
"Mhm. Taking into consideration the temperature and humidity in these parts, that should be about right, but we won't know any more until after the autopsy."
"I don't see any external injuries. What did he die of?"
"Poison," said the doctor without hesitation. "It's a little hard to tell because he's so wet, but I'm pretty sure it must have been cyanide."
Suicide or murder, the body could hardly have been there for three or four days, so someone must have left it there. Wondering why anyone would have taken that trouble, Takemura looked around. The only building nearby was the campground office. The older of the two men who worked there was waiting beside the rope, probably at police request. Moving a little away from the body, Takemura beckoned to him.
This man was a permanent employee of the Togakushi Township government, and the other was a college student working for the summer. Both were natives of Togakushi, and the younger man was expecting eventually to fill a permanent position, too, when one became vacant.
Naturally, the man waiting was nervous, but he looked to Takemura like a normally outgoing person. Giving him a cigarette and lighting it for him with a match, Takemura opened with, "Is this campground always so quiet?"
"Oh no, it's usually very crowded in season, but we haven't had any campers since the day before yesterday because of all the rain."
"Have the two of you been in the office all the time?"
"Yes, we live there. We're on duty around the clock."
"And you didn't know there was a dead body over there?"
"No, we had no idea, until the girls told us."
"But that place is on the trail up the mountain, isn't it? I should think anyone climbing the mountain would have seen the body right off."
"Probably so. In fact, it wouldn't have had to be someone going up the mountain. We take a look around the campground from time to time ourselves, and if the body had been there when we did, we couldn't have missed it."
"When's the last time you took a look around?"
"I think it was around two yesterday afternoon. We only checked to make sure no campers had come in, and then we went right back to the office. But if that body had been there, I'm sure we'd have seen it."
"Since the road passes right in front of the office, I guess you would have noticed if anyone had gone by, wouldn't you?"
"Well, when there are a lot of campers and mountain climbers, we don't take note of every single one, but on a leisurely day like yesterday, I think we would have noticed. But I wouldn't guarantee it. Of course, no matter what chance there might be that we could have missed it, I can't believe that anybody who knew this office was here would have wanted to carry something like that past it. I mean, how could he be sure we wouldn't see it?"
"How about at night?"
"At night? Well, I guess we might have missed it then. But it gets pitch dark around here, and it was especially dark last night. It could have been done with a flashlight, but we would probably have seen the light."
"But the fact is, you didn't see anything, so I guess you must have been sound asleep."
"I guess so. Then you think the body was brought here last night?" said the campground attendant, with an uneasy shake of the head. "But why would anybody have wanted to bring it out here?" The same doubt had occurred to him as to Takemura.
Miyazaki returned. The chief of detectives
