Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination - Edogawa Rampo [19]
Literally buried under his papers, the district attorney was in no mood to play host, so he growled impatiently to his servant: "Kindly tell whoever it is that I'm too busy to see anyone today."
"Yes, sir," the maid replied obediently, but as she turned, the door suddenly opened, and the caller popped his head in playfully.
"Good afternoon, Mr. District Attorney," the caller said cheerfully, ignoring the startled look of the servant. "Don't tell me you're too busy even to see your old friend Akechi."
Kasamori dropped his pince-nez and looked up sharply. But immediately his face broadened into a happy grin.
"Why, hello, Dr. Akechi," he replied. "I didn't know it was you. Forgive me. Step right in and make yourself comfortable. As a matter of fact, I was hoping you'd drop in."
Kasamori dismissed the maid with a grunt and motioned to his guest to be seated. A sleuth with a mind keen as a razor and a unique technique for solving knotty problems, Dr. Kogoro Akechi was the one man whom the district attorney would have stopped to talk to even if he had been on his way to catch a train. On several previous occasions he had asked for Dr. Akechi's cooperation in cracking what had been labeled "impossible cases," and in every instance the man had lived up to his reputation as one of Japan's most remarkable detectives.
After lighting a cigarette, Dr. Akechi nodded meaningfully toward the stacks of papers on the district attorney's desk.
"I see you're very busy," he remarked casually. "Is it the case of the old woman who was murdered recently?"
"Yes," the district attorney replied. "Frankly, I'm at the end of my rope."
"Pessimism doesn't become you, Mr. District Attorney," said Dr. Akechi with a dry laugh. "Come, now, tell me the results of the psychological tests you gave your two suspects."
Kasamori raised his eyebrows. "How the devil did you know about my tests?" he asked sharply.
"One of your assistants told me," Dr. Akechi explained. "You see, I'm deeply interested in the case too, so I thought I'd come and offer you my humble services."
"It was kind of you to come," Kasamori replied gratefully and quickly launched into a discussion of his complicated experiments.
"The results, as you will notice," he said, "are clear enough, but there is something that has me completely baffled. Yesterday I gave each suspect two tests, a lie-detector test based on pulse measurements and a word-association test. In Fukiya's case the pulse measurements were almost always above suspicion. But when I compared the results of the word-association test, I found a tremendous difference between Saito and Fukiya. In fact, the results were so far apart that I must admit I'm completely at a loss for an explanation. Just look at this questionnaire and observe the differences in the time taken by the two suspects in their replies to the same words."
Kasamori then handed Dr. Akechi the following tabulation of the results of the word-association test:
WORD GIVEN FUKIYA SAITO
Answer Time Taken Answer Time Taken
head hair 0.9sec. tail 1.2sec.
green grass 0.7 " grass 1.1 "
water hot water 0.9 " fish 1.3 "
sing songs 1.1 " geisha 1.5 "
long short 1.0 " cord 1.2 "
*kill knife 0.8 " crime 3.1 "
boat river 0.9 " water 2.2 "
window door 0.8 " glass 1.5 "
food beefsteak 1.0 " fish 1.3 "
*money bank notes 0.7 " bank 3.5 "
cold water 1.1 " winter 3.2 "
illness cold 1.6sec. tuberculosis 2.3sec.
needle thread 1.0 " thread 1.2 "
*pine dwarf tree 0.8 " tree 2.3 "
mountain high 0.9 " river 1.4 "
*blood flowing 1.0 " red 3.9 "
new old 0.8 " dress 3.0 "
hate spider 1.2 " sickness 1.5 "
*dwarf tree pine 0.6 " flower 6.2 "
bird flying 0.9 " canary 3.6 "
book library 1.0 " novel 1.3 "
*oilpaper conceal 1.0 " parcel 4.0 "
friend Saito 1.1 " Fukiya 1.8 "
box wood 1.0 " doll 1.2 "
*crime murder 0.7 " police 3.7 "
woman lover 1.0 " sister 1.3 "
painting screen 0.9 " landscape 1.3 "
*steal