The Tooth Tattoo(11)
‘Yes, but things can easily go wrong. You find you’re running through your cash, or you lose your credit cards, or you just get ill and there’s no one with you to share your troubles and laugh them off. The world can seem a hostile place.’
‘It would take more than that to make me jump into a canal.’
She didn’t take the remark as lightly as he intended. ‘We’re not all men of steel.’
‘Just trying to keep a sense of proportion.’
‘Not always so simple. You said she was Japanese. They think differently about suicide. It’s rooted in their culture.’
‘What – harry-karry?’
‘Hara-kiri, actually. No, that’s part of the samurai tradition and too gory to go into. I’m talking about the mass of the people, and the way they think. I’m trying to think of the name of the most famous Japanese dramatist. Anyway, he specialised in plays about lovers who commit suicide, and he was writing over three hundred years ago.’
Paloma’s knowledge of international drama had to be respected. She had her own company advising on historical costume for theatre, film and television.
Diamond said, ‘I heard somewhere that the Japanese are in the premier league for suicide. If you fail in your job, topping yourself is the honourable thing to do. Politicians, bankers, business managers. It wouldn’t happen here. You write a book about your failings and make another fortune.’
His efforts to raise a smile weren’t working.
‘Did this poor girl leave a note?’
‘No.’
‘Then how do they know she killed herself?’
‘They found something with the body that was almost the same as a suicide note. What are those little carved ivory things people collect? They have some sort of practical function.’
‘Netsuke?’
‘Right.’
‘They go with traditional Japanese costume, fixed to the sash of a kimono so that personal items can be suspended from them.’
‘Well, this one was found inside her T-shirt. She may have been holding it to her chest when she jumped. Two embracing figures in snow up to their waists.’
‘Chubei and Umegawa.’
His high opinion of Paloma’s expertise went up several more notches. ‘You know their names?’
‘They’re well known, almost universal characters. And now I’ve remembered the name of the playwright: Chikamatsu. He used them in one of his plays. It ends with the lovers going out into the snow to die.’
‘You’re way ahead of me. The point of this is that the police took the netsuke to be a suicide emblem.’
‘Symbolically, it does make sense,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen the story represented in woodcuts, paintings and netsuke. This poor woman may have been in love.’
‘Not just missing her credit cards, then?’
She finally produced a smile, more in charity than humour. ‘Probably not. Had she met someone?’
‘Couldn’t tell you. I don’t suppose the Vienna police could, either.’
‘Aren’t you interested in why she died?’
‘The “how” matters more than the “why”. If it happened here and it became obvious she’d killed herself, with no possibility of anyone else being involved, we wouldn’t go into all the possible reasons. The inquest will do that. It’s not up to the police to find out her state of mind.’
‘Peter, you probably don’t mean it, but that sounds so uncaring.’
Smarting from that, he justified his statement. ‘We’re not social workers or psychologists. We’d be wrong to try.’
‘But you’d try if she’d been murdered. That’s where your argument breaks down.’
He shrugged. ‘I didn’t think we were arguing. Besides, it’s not my case. The Vienna police dealt with it.’
‘And decided it was suicide because of nothing more substantial than the netsuke? Didn’t they go into it any more deeply than that? Someone could have stuffed the netsuke into her clothes and pushed her in.’
‘Murder, you mean?’
‘Or manslaughter, horseplay that went wrong.’
‘Unlikely.’
‘Why?’
‘If they used the netsuke to delude the police the killing would be premeditated. But it wouldn’t be a very reliable way of going about it. You couldn’t guarantee the police would find the thing. It was not much bigger than a walnut.’
‘So you agree with the official line - it was suicide?’
‘I’ve no doubt they looked at all the evidence.’
‘And this was how long ago? Four years? People still care enough to leave flowers.’