64

64

7.52015–20151 seasonCrime

In 2002 (Heisei 14), public relations officer Mikami Yoshinobu of D Prefectural Police, is having an intense confrontation with the correspondents’ club, over the issue of the anonymity of a perpetrator in a traffic accident that caused serious injuries. Meanwhile, the public relations office is informed by the top brass that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department commissioner’s visit to the home of the family of the victim in “64”, an important unsolved case with its statute of limitation about to run out, has been decided one week later. The case which the police refer to internally as “64” is the kidnapping and murder of Shoko-chan which took place in just seven days in January 1989 (Showa 64). It was the worst in D Prefectural Police’s history. Mikami is under strict orders to obtain the family’s consent as well as to give the reporters’ questions beforehand. The visit is meant to emphasise the police’s resolve to put all effort into solving the case. However, the victim’s father, Amemiya Yoshio, rejects the commissioner’s visit and the correspondents’ club refuses to cooperate for the commissioner’s press conference. Mikami is torn between the top brass, which operates on organisational principles, and the correspondents’ club. The club denounces the complete change in Mikami’s attitude which had been open until then. In fact, Mikami has a big problem at home. His only daughter, Ayumi, has been missing since several months ago…