5.03 Chôsho

Ozawa handed me a small stack of documents that had been typed up in the oddest of manners, containing bizarre sentence breaks, random margins, and all printed put on lined paper. At the top of the first page was another word I had never seen before: 調書 (chôsho). Looking the word up in my electronic dictionary, I learned that it was a legal record based on their questioning of me the previous day that had been placed before me.

“You don’t mind if I read it first before I sign it, do you?”

“No, of course not,” Ozawa said. “Take as long as you need.”

There was more than one chôsho and it took me a good two and a half hours to read through all of them. Anytime I was confused about something, I asked for an explanation. If I didn’t understand a word I looked it up on my electronic dictionary, or when all else failed asked Kojima, and pinched my nose when he answered. If any detail was fuzzy or inaccurate, and they often were, I asked them to clarify them and even requested they rewrite the chôsho before I signed them.

The final draft of the chôsho first described my family, educational and occupational background. It mentioned my ability to not only understand, but read and write Japanese, as well, ostensibly to inform the court that I understood the nature of the crimes I was suspected of committing.

And finally, there was a brief description of how and when the drugs came to Japan. Nowhere in the chôsho did it say that I had tried to have the drugs sent to me, nowhere did it suggest that I was culpable.

I wished I’d had a lawyer present to advise me on what and what not to do, but that wasn’t a luxury Japanese law afforded those under suspicion.

Against my better judgment, I begin signing the chôsho.

When I was done, Nakata thanked me, adding that he and Ozawa thought I was all right.

“The problem is,” Nakata said, “our boss thinks it’s all an act. He thinks you’re just trying to fool us by playing innocent.”

I insisted that I had been as forthcoming as I could about everything.

“Well, he doesn’t think so. He still thinks you’re hiding something. You wouldn’t be still hiding something would you?”

“No, of course not. I’ve told you everything.”

_____________________________________________________________________

注意：この作品はフィクションです。登場人物、団体等、実在のモノとは一切関係ありません。

© Aonghas Crowe, 2010. All rights reserved.

~ by Aonghas Crowe on January 26, 2010.