The Northwest times. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1947-1955, 1954-06-16
A Short Story.
EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE

jective The woman was a CASE
not a woman He. Kawataka haC
drilled that cogent point into al
his operatives. mo matter how ur
bane the man or beautiful the Wo
man, they are cases, negative
quantity that must be regarded witt
all the detachment scientist as
sumes when studying a fossil +"
That was what he'd said to all hi;
neophytes. Evidently this young
Suzuki was the subjective type per-
son who thought of subjects as ra-
tional beings. This was a poor qua
lily Kawataka reflected disapproy-
ingly. in any detective
"She had no male customers all
day" the neat typewriting prOclai-
med. until 4 o'clock when | had an
idea reasoned that eventually
the girl might reglimpse my face
If she did, she might become curl
Gus about my continued proximity
eff she suspected that I'd been
hired TO watch her I'd be useless
| Immediately and the surveillance
might be ruined. reasoned there
fore, that must Use another ap-
proach
| II entered the shop and motioned
| her TO one side and very seriously,
told her that certain customer
was being watched by the police
that l was policeman. l asked
her if she'd very much object to my
continuing to stay there, incOnspi-
cuously.
"She told me and again |
| noticed that she's a pert girl that
she didn't object at all particular
ly since was policeman. She
said that the owner might come
once in while but she'd explain
to her-the owner is woman
what l was doing"
Kawataka put the sheets down
carefully and pulled out his hand
kerchief and polished his banld head
again Rather clever, this police
man angle. Clever, really. The
girl wouldn't hesitate to talk to the
suspected lover in the case when he
came in Yes. this was a fairly Gle
yer strategem.
The girl would think that any
conversation or brief tryst with her
lover . and there had to be
lover-wouldnt have any interest
or hold any import to a policeman
looking for felon Then, if the
suspected amour came into the
shop the girl shouldn't try to dis
semble in any way Maybe, ponder
ed Kawataka, picking up the sheets
agani. this young Galahad is good
detective
He commenced reading again.
I had an opportunity to study this
girl suspected of cheating on her
husband She is very intelligent
and has a wNnsome personality"
KaWataka snorted aloud and
shook his head Suzuki wasn't sup
posed to follow this tack; he was
getting entirely too subjective That
was his failing he pried into facets
of peoples personality That wasn't
his job.
"She isn't a happy woman at all !"
the black report continued. "She
evidently is disinterested in life.
really. To her il consists of a pro-
cession of monotonous, blank days
This girl could be vivacious and a
live under different social condi-
tons
Kawataka's broad face burned
with anger. The stupid youngster
was making a mockery of this case
He was writing like a prudiSh soci-
ologist Not objective at all
At 5 o'clock I offered to see her
home as a courtesy, of course. Ac
tually this was continuance of
my watching technique She might
possibly be meeting someone on the
trolley-thoush was sure she
wasn't
"Hah Kawataka exclaimed a
loud Trusting young fool He had
stars in his eyes and hay in his hair
He trusted the world. believed in
humanity. believed IN the goodness
of a girl who happened to be pretty
and gazed with clear eyes He didn't
seem to know that people who we're
sinful and malevolent also had nice
faces and level glances Kawataka
spat in the general direction Of his
waste paper basket and read on
"She seemed pleased that went
along and I felt guilty I almost
10 hate my job"
Kawataka groaned This vas get
TING absurd Hprp u-ac ~, tpVect{os