Holy Mother

Chapter 16 – Megan’s Law

The front door immediately opened, then a slightly fat woman came out from the door. “It was awful, right?” That was the first sentence that the woman said as if she already knew that the two of them had come because of the boy’s murder case.

“Yesterday at half-past six in the morning, the body of a boy was found on the riverbank. Do you know about that?” After showing her police badge, Tanizaki pulled out a notebook and pen while asking that question.

“Yes. I saw it on the news. That really made my stomach turn.”

“Did you hear any strange noises or the voices of people talking from yesterday night to the morning?”

“No.” The woman weakly shook her head and then sighed.

“Did you really not hear anything even though there was a little boy in this area that was affected by the disaster? Did you not see any cars or strange people before and after the incident?”

“Hmm, actually I have three children who are still in elementary school. Before this incident, I did not pay attention to anything. After the incident, the school and the parents held a meeting, and finally, we decided to make a patrol schedule when the children commuted from school. But, for the moment we did not find anything strange. Well … this patrol has only just begun, though.”

“Was there anything that made you feel weird before the incident?”

“I also keep thinking about that. You know, there’s a rumor that previously something bad like this had happened there. It was always something like small animals that were tortured or killed or maybe rubbish that was burned? But, I don’t feel there was something like that before the incident…”

“Oh, I see. So, you don’t think that there’s something that has changed from the usual?”

“I have tried to recall these past few months’ events, but I did not find anything strange. After all, that person must be a weird pervert because he was attacking a child. I heard the police have a list of names of people involved in sexual assault cases. Can the police publicly announce the list?”

“It is only possible in another country, but we can’t do that in Japan…” Tanizaki made a face of regret at the woman who seemed to have cornered her.

Megan’s Law, Sakaguchi thought.

Megan’s Law. It was a strategy to prevent sexual violence by spreading the names of people who are considered dangerous or have been involved in sexual violence to the public. The hope was that all of the people in that area supervised the person together. The name was taken from Megan Kanka, a girl who was a victim of violence in America.

Since then, Megan’s Law was established. The law was then used in Korea and the United Kingdom. In Japan, there was once a suggestion to apply this law. However, if this law was established, the criminals will face difficulty in returning to society when they get out of prison. The government was even more worried that there would be isolation and oppression of the former convicts of sexual crimes. After much deliberation, the law was not established.

“Do sexual assault criminals deserve human rights?” The woman snorted as if she could read Sakaguchi’s mind. “Sexual assault crimes murders the soul, you know? Why bother to bring them back to society after doing something despicable like that? Am I right?”

As if asking for approval, the woman looked alternately at Sakaguchi and Tanizaki. When Sakaguchi hesitated thinking about how to answer it based on popular opinion, Tanizaki had already opened her mouth.

“As women, it is not impossible for us to be the victim.”

Sakaguchi admired Tanizaki’s spontaneous answer, which didn’t contain any disapproval, nor did she reject her opinion. Rather it grasped the intentions of her heart.

“Moreover, the city residents will be more alert if information about people like that who lives in this area was published to the public. The boy might not have died. Was there a point in investigating after a murder has taken place? I already told you earlier, my family has children who are still in elementary school, so I was scared. I wonder how many years it will take for this country to be allowed to publish information like that? There are plans about that, right?”

As their conversation wandered from the main topic, Sakaguchi interfered. “It’s normal for you to feel worried. The important thing is, we also hope that this case is quickly resolved. That is why we are here to hear your testimony. Summarizing the entire discussion we had, from the very beginning and including there was a patrol made,  there was nothing suspicious, right?”

After he returned to the main topic, the woman nodded and said: “Yes, that’s right.” Sakaguchi and Tanizaki finished writing the notes. It seemed that there was no new information they could get.

“Even in remote areas like this, I wonder how a case like this could happen. Oh, did you remember the rape case in Ohmito City? “

Ohmito City was a city that was located right next to this city. Four years ago, there was a serial rape case of several girls. The victims were middle and high school students. Luckily the culprit was caught.

“That case is also very scary.” The woman exhaled. “Even though from the outside, this city looks peaceful. But, I can’t imagine that there really was a bad person living under the same sky as me…” The woman hugged herself with both arms, then looked at the blue sky with a sad look.