The Case Files of Jeweler Richard - Chapter 3.5

I gotta be honest…I have no idea what was going on in this part half the time. If you do (or also don’t understand), please let me know

Er , a voice broke in the hall.

A small man stumbled out of the staff entrance at the left side of the stage. It was Old Man Yoshida.

“…Is that true?”

The small elderly man, dressed in overalls, nervously approached Director Kataura. She nodded.

“It is true. As soon as the performance ends, we will look for temples and shrines that know how to handle such situations.”

“Oh, no, no, doing something like that. It would be better to return it to the other side.”

“I also think so, but there is nothing we can do about it if they dislike it.”

“Couldn’t we have had a calmer discussion? Since it is such an important item.”

“It is precisely because we did that I do not wish to return it in a jinxed state. This is a decision made between our two companies. It will not be overturned. I do not know how long it will take, but well, we might not be able to return it for two or three months, perhaps even longer.”

I tensed my cheeks. If there was ever a time when I had to jump out, there was already a countdown to it. I was about to take a step forward in my overeagerness when somebody jerked my waist back.

Richard.

The store owner, who put me behind him, soundlessly approached Old Man Yoshida and gently placed his hand on his shoulder from behind. His small body turned around like he had a spasm.

“Hello. You are Yoshida Teruaki-sama, yes?”

“…You’re the jeweler.”

“Yes, that is how I introduced myself.”

Richard’s voice was so clear and crisp that it didn’t fit the scene. Old Man Yoshida’s face stiffened. After a silence that seemed strategic, Richard grinned.

“…!”

“It seems that something came to mind for you.”

I heard him gulp. Old Man Yoshida, like his strings had been cut, fell prostrated onto the floor. His moans of “Aah, aah” were tearful sobs. He was wailing.

“It’s over, it’s all over…! I’m going to be killed…!”

After a death-like silence, the hall erupted.

There was a phrase called “violent shock.” It meant exactly how it was read, violently shocking.* These ten days were exactly that. For the ballet company, me, and Richard. By the time it was Sunday, one week later, I would have thought that it had already been a month or so. It was too dense.

(TN: The word used here is 激動 or gekidou, containing 激しい or “violent” and 動く or “moving”)

In the entrance hall of the large nine-story building, I was waiting intently. It was two in the afternoon right now, so I had been sitting there for nearly four hours. I had browsed through most of the magazines in a nearby convenience store. The atmosphere was a lot like that of a hospital waiting room, but there was a policeman with a baton standing at the entrance. They’ve changed shifts several times. Thank you for your hard work. This was the third time I was waiting for Richard at a police station. The first time was at the police box in front of the train station when we first met, and the second time was that day when we accompanied Old Man Yoshida.

Suddenly, the elevator came down, and a man with blond hair and blue eyes emerged from within. A chic black jacket and pants. Shiny new amber-colored leather shoes. He naturally gathered the gazes of people in the hall. It was the usual with him, but looking at this way, it was somewhat like a cage of gazes. I lifted my hand and approached Richard. I was told that I shouldn’t wear jeans, so I was wearing brown pants that were as clean as possible and a collared shirt.

“Good work. It must have been tough. It’s still before three, so you’re safe.”

“……How long have you been here?”

“If we’re gonna meet on-site anyways, then coming here is the same as that. This sure brings back memories. You said something like that the first time.”

“The first time?”

“The Harajuku police box. You told me I didn’t really have to accompany you until the end. Can we leave now?”

“Of course. Even if they detain me, I will leave.”

“Understood. Let’s go now.”

With the feeling like it was the first cup of sake*, I handed Richard a bottle of mineral water I had bought from the vending machine. Was he offered a bowl of katsudon like in a Showa drama?* No, even if they did, he wouldn’t eat it. He would probably demand royal milk tea with a nonchalant face.

(TN: “First cup of sake” is a variation on the phrase 駆け付け三杯, which basically means the three cups of sake latecomers have to drink. “A bowl of katsudon” is a common trope in old Japanese detective dramas where the detectives would give the suspect a bowl of katsudon, supposedly to soften them up so they will confess easier)

“It took longer than I expected.”

“I’m not so surprised. It’s probably a reward to interview you.”

“……”

Richard glared at me like he wanted to say something, but didn’t say anything. He seemed quite tired. It was kind of pitiful to see him drinking water so vigorously. I wanted to think that he at least had the freedom to drink water.

Today’s business was the interview for the case regarding the Kataura Ballet Company. Richard wasn’t a suspect, but he was summoned as a material witness. He was also questioned on that Friday, but because the case was too complicated, it couldn’t be ended in one go, apparently. It was the first time I learned that someone who wasn’t even a suspect could be called in so many times. It was a real nuisance for the one being called in.

We got into the Jaguar parked in the parking lot, and while watching Richard turn the wheel a bit more roughly than usual, I started talking with reserve. There was still a lot he didn’t tell me about how he did it.

“This is just to make sure, but you were asked about the emeralds, right?”

“What else do you think?”

“Don’t get mad. What happened to that necklace?”

“It seems that it is placed under the management of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Narcotics Control Department. I am told that narcotics investigations in Japan are handled by them, not the police, so…it should go without saying, but this topic—”

“—Is still off the record. I get it.”

Old Man Yoshida was involved in drug dealing.

Not marijuana or dangerous drugs, but cocaine. A lot of it.

After he broke down crying, Old Man Yoshida kept repeating “Please forgive me” and went as far as to begin telling us to protect him from the police. Among the company members who were astonished, only Richard and Director Kataura had hard expressions on their faces. There was only one man who was taking advantage of the uproar and trying to escape outside, and when I restrained him as planned, I found that he was Old Man Yoshida’s grandson.

Nobody was injured, and it wasn’t like we caught the thief, so we couldn’t call a police car and instead headed to this police station in a large car driven by Director Kataura.

While taking along that emerald necklace.

It was quick from there. Old Man Yoshida confessed everything and shouted at the panicking Grandson Yoshida that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for him.

“I still can’t wrap my head around how such an ordinary old man with a body like a dead tree could get involved in drug dealing? How did that happen?”

Richard kept silent. I was sure he must have talked for hours today. This was probably not a good time to use his mouth for just anything. Alright, let’s try another means.

“Hey, do you like nama caramel?* I bought it yesterday, though.”

(TN: Nama caramel is a popular snack which is basically soft caramel candies made from fresh milk and butter.)

“…………From where.”

“The Hokkaido product exhibition at the event hall of the station building. I’ve also kept the receipt.”

I took out the square box of caramels from my bag. There were six brown cubes wrapped in plastic and tied at both ends inside the brick-colored box. They had a rich buttery taste, but they were mixed with dried fruits so the aftertaste was strangely refreshing.

For ten full seconds, Richard groaned, looking like an old doctor making a deal with the devil, before saying he had to decline because he couldn’t take his hands off the wheel. I see. I peeled the wrapper off one caramel and held it out to the driver’s seat between my fingers. Around the time we waited for the light to change, the beautiful big fish took the bait. After savoring it slowly and swallowing, Richard began to speak with a reluctant air.

“After I returned to the ballet company with you, I heard something interesting from Kataura-sama. The necklace was partially damaged when it was transported by air from the organization called the Marienbad Ballet. Apparently, there was a stipulation where a system was set up so that it would be fixed by a designated contractor who would receive the insurance money, but from there on, the exchange has already been set up.”

The historic Marienbad Ballet certainly was active in the past, but currently it was mostly inactive due to a business slump, and it survived in the form of a company that loaned out stage costumes. That was Director Kataura’s understanding, but the reality that emerged as a result of the investigation was completely different. It seemed that the ballet company, after its management changed completely, was very likely a shell corporation based in the United States and a front for a drug trafficking organization.

Director Kataura, who didn’t know any of that, had been dumbfounded, but Old Man Yoshida, who was actually doing the communications, knew what was really going on. He didn’t have a long career with the ballet company for nothing, and was fluent in English. He was approached to deal drugs during the process of communicating with the other party for a rental that came after a long period of time.

“This was the arrangement. The setting of the emeralds, which had been damaged from the beginning, was tampered with by the repair contractor who was an accomplice of the organization behind the Marienbad Ballet.”

“Tampered with…you mean you saw through it?”

“Yes.”

Just one real emerald was set in the place where there was supposed to be a synthetic gem— Richard said carelessly. It was too flawless—in other words, too scratch-free—and was of a quality where it could be mistaken for a manmade gem.

In the second round, the documents that Richard had Old Man Yoshida show him were apparently something like a blueprint for the jewelry. It was a certificate for insurance use that detailed that only the five gems in the center of the five motifs were genuine, the rest were fakes, and the production budget was several thousand dollars. Other than those places, there were no real emeralds set in the necklace.

That was what it should have been, but Richard’s eyes discovered a real emerald that was “not supposed to exist.”

“…How did you know it the second time? I read that even experts have trouble telling the authentic ones apart from the fake ones when it comes to synthetic emeralds. Is there a trick?”

“It is experience. I also assumed they were all fakes when I first took a look at it, but when I studied it while thinking that there was an unusually high-quality emerald in there somewhere, it was a different story.”

“It’s a mystery to me from there. Why did that come into your mind the second time…?”

“Let me continue talking. Old Man Yoshida would receive the necklace with the real emerald set inside and return it to Marienbad as soon as the performance ended, and the person who was actually smuggling the drugs would exchange the emerald in the relevant area for the drugs. With this, a safe trade of illegal drugs is established. It is a type of money laundering. Old Man Yoshida had planned to procure cash as a ‘payment for labor.’”

The plan went wrong due to the existence of Grandson Yoshida, who, like Old Man Yoshida, was in charge of maintaining the stage. He was a freeter, and though he was glad he got into the company to do odd jobs by way of his grandpa’s influence, he was barely scraping by, and according to the investigation, he was apparently a mild drug addict.

Old Man Yoshida told his grandson, who lived with him and pestered him for pocket money because he was broke, to be patient because they would receive a large amount of money before long. Grandson Yoshida’s eyes sparkled, and with a look of respect he asked his grandfather what he was talking about and if he could help. Old Man Yoshida only told him to wait quietly. Of course, Grandson Yoshida didn’t wait quietly. He snooped around his grandfather’s person, forcibly removed the protection from the Western language emails, ran them through machine translation, and even determined that there seemed to be a mystery surrounding the emerald necklace.

“I’ve also heard about that from Shinkai-san on the phone. Director Kataura told her about it.”

“It seems that it was a blessing in disguise that Old Man Yoshida did not tell his grandson about the whole plan.”

“…What a surreal story. A drug trafficker old man and his grandson who’s planning on embezzling him even though he didn’t know anything.”

Grandson Yoshida planned on making off with the emerald necklace. He didn’t know the details, but he thought it would surely land him a huge amount of money contrary to what everyone said. If that was the case, he could sell it off at a pawn shop himself, and let whatever happened afterward happen.

Of course, it could not have worked out well. When he tried to take the whole safe out, he was discovered by Director Kataura and Old Man Yoshida and gave up. Old Man Yoshida, who said “I’ll stand watch here”, worked hard with his grandson, who had been hiding behind it, to return the safe in the hallway back to its original place.

When he took it out during dress rehearsal and tried to escape, once again, he stopped because he was moved by his grandpa who cried that he couldn’t tell him what was going on but please stop, for the love of God, and ultimately, the plan failed.

Of course, if he reported to Director Kataura that his grandson was trying to steal the necklace, Old Man Yoshida’s plan would also not end without issue. The two had no choice but to conspire together and work to cover up, and as a result, incidents that could only be described as unnatural phenomena came about.

“Maybe it turned out good in the end. Since it got found out because of a family quarrel…no…wasn’t it found out…?”

That’s right. Had the occult case just remained an occult case, it probably wouldn’t have been found out. The deal would be closed when the necklace is returned, after all.

If Richard hadn’t been there.

That was why the police summoned him as a material witness.

“At the restaurant back then, what was your motive for going back to the company? You suddenly got into your ‘thinking’ mode, so I was surprised.”

“I would not go as far as to call it a motive. While I was talking to you, I thought it would not hurt to have the jewelry shown to me once again. I wondered if I might have overlooked the peculiarities of antiques or some sort of special stone, and it was also true that though it did not worry me, I felt that there was something off.”

In his second appraisal, Richard found an emerald that was likely a fake but possibly authentic, and wondered about how it was set in an inconspicuous edge of the necklace. Afterwards, Richard learned from Director Kataura about the damage and repair it had undergone before it arrived, and his suspicions deepened. And then, when Old Man Yoshida, who was keeping a watchful eye on him, went to the washroom temporarily and left the office, he saw it because it was inadvertently left out on the desk—that was what Richard stated, so he surely didn’t rummage through the desk or snooped around in the documents. Naturally—from the name of an unfamiliar jewelry repair company, he looked up the number, and when he actually called it, he found that it wasn’t a repair company, just a broker. When he borrowed Old Man Yoshida’s name and, as his representative, asked which repair contractor was the company’s necklace sent to, Richard’s prediction came true as a result.

The organization that “repaired” the necklace was, according to the police, a facility that was connected to gangsters.

“…What a horrifying story. The deal would have closed if you hadn’t noticed it. Your luck is incredible, with a timing that even superheroes would be shocked at…Oh, I’m not trying to imagine anything weird.”

“The investigators also told me something like that. Indeed, whether it be a watchman of the law or an economics student, why are you so fixated on the appraisal of the emeralds? How about you wake up and try living five years of looking at stones instead of newspapers? I guarantee that you will gain a discerning eye.”

“Sorry. I’ve done you wrong. I have butter flavor and orange flavor here, but do you want another one?”

When you are ready , Richard assured. I threw a caramel with a different wrapping paper from the last one into the mouth of the blond-haired and blue-eyed carp and contained his bad mood. I could vaguely imagine it. Even if he said that there was something suspicious because he found out the stones were different, unless the people concerned in the investigation were considerable gemstone buffs, it would be difficult for them to believe him. Maybe they had a bad feeling.

“I’m sure the investigators were surprised because your eyes are so sharp. After all, you normally wouldn’t notice it. No one could imagine using gemstones to deal drugs. Not all jewelers are so perceptive, right?”

“It is not perception. Emeralds are gemstones that are used for such transactions relatively often, due to their origin.”

“Huh…? Emeralds and drugs? What’s that about?”

“Caramel.”

“…”

“One more.”

“…Which flavor?”

“Orange.”

After swallowing the fruit-filled creamy caramel, Richard dispassionately told me about it. About drugs, emeralds, and the place they are produced.

The country of Colombia, located in South America, yielded the world’s finest emeralds, and it was also famous for producing cocaine. It is not uncommon for members of the mafia to have built palatial mansions on drugs. Until very recently, the government even did a campaign to give farmland to farmers who stopped growing coca leaves, which were the source of the drug. I imagined a scenery like a Shizuoka tea field. A field of drugs that the state wanted to ban by campaigning. Holy crap.

“For about a decade now, the Colombian government has severely restricted the taking out of emeralds. There are various other circumstances involved, such as the issue of how the mines are managed, but there is no doubt that the collusion with the drug trade is a major problem. Since you are in the faculty of economics, you at least know the term money laundering.”

“…It’s a technique to make the source of the money unclear for things like tax evasion and drug trafficking, isn’t it?”

For the first time in a while, I heard Richard’s “Good for you.” “Well done.” I hadn’t really been aware of it until I enrolled into the economics department, but a bank was a commercial organization before it was a financial institution. It was a service sector that made money by lending and looking after deposits. If there were people among the users who violated the law, they must be cracked down on because it would inconvenience the business. They might even freeze funds. Occasionally, they would cooperate with the police and keep an eye on unnatural cash flows. The cheap trick to get away from that was money laundering, supposedly. I didn’t think I slept much during Management Ethics.

“It might be difficult to imagine, but suppose that there exists a drug that moves for several millions of yen per kilogram, or tens of millions of yen. If you want to buy it honestly, you need cash, but the management of large sums of money is heavily scrutinized by financial institutions. Even more so for the exchange of large sums with overseas accounts.”

“So if you move a lot of money around carelessly, you’re going to get noticed.”

“Yes. In that respect, gemstones are useful, not limited to emeralds. Jewelers who are connected to groups that deal in illegal drugs sell gemstones, not drugs, to foreign buyers. It is like a prepaid card. The buyer returns to their country with the gemstone, looks for someone who has the actual drugs and gives them the gem. Upon that…”

The deal is closed. Without dirtying their bank accounts, gemstones could be exchanged for cocaine.

Beautiful gemstones had this kind of utility value?

“…What a disgusting story.”

“Indeed.”

“There’s a limit to being inconvenienced. For God’s sake, they need to crack down on it harder…”

“They do crack down on it hard. Each country’s response to drug trafficking is very severe. In South America and Asia, when one gets involved in drug dealing, it would be the death penalty in many countries, no room for argument. It does not matter if one is a foreigner. The excuse of ‘I honestly didn’t know’ is also meaningless. Nevertheless, there are plenty of organizations that employ underhanded measures, such as the one this time.”

I felt gloomy. Even though today was the day of a long-awaited and fun event that was going to start from now.

“Why on earth did those drug dealer guys get a ballet company involved? I’m not trying to say that it should be done elsewhere, but they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.”

“They would have only focused on the fact that it would not be suspicious for international exchanges to take place in the name of art. Being able to transport gemstones without faking that they are gemstones was a good plan, from the perspective of preserving prized stones. I think it was a clever way of doing it.”