An Ugly Case (cont’d)
Satō showed the authorization letter to Chiba and others and declared that he would surely take the woman to Vancouver. He tried to pull the woman out from the Salvation Army but this did not work out easily. The Salvation Army was cautious about passing on the girl under their protection to others. They were concerned that she might fall in the devil hands again.
But Kimoto and Harada served as witnesses and made a false statement that they were going to send Omichi to her brother in Vancouver, and finally the woman came out from the Salvation Army.
Kimoto and Harada did give a false statement in order to have the Salvation Army release Omichi from their hands but they did it solely for that purpose and were not conspiring for anything else. In other words, they truly believed that Satō was going to take the woman to Vancouver. However, Takeshi Satō was plotting treacheries in his mind. To arrange Satō’s trip to Vancouver to send Omichi to her “brother,” Chiba bought them tickets to Vancouver. Crafty man Satō immediately brought the tickets to the station and explained to them that he got them by mistake; “I sent my servant to purchase tickets to Keith, the next station, but for some reason he was confused and bought tickets to Vancouver. I’m in big trouble.” He succeeded in exchanging the tickets and got difference back too. There is a rumor that he even appropriated the money but this information has not been confirmed. Anyway, it was clear that Satō was plotting to steal the prostitute. Sure enough, he got off at the next station and transferred to a train bound east and took Omichi to Saskatoon. Omichi was shocked, of course, but Kimoto and Harada also ground their teeth with vexation. They huffed that they were going to even use the police to knock him off but others calmed them down and eventually they gave in.
Satō flew to Saskatoon with the wind and once settled he negotiated with Vancouver, and ended up paying 500 dollars to Hayashi.
Omichi fell in alcohol out of desperation and died from illness in Saskatoon. Her bereaved child is still at Satō’s and the Satōs say that they will continue to take care of the child.