Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

"What's wrong? Do you have to wait for me to eat together?" At 7:30 on Monday night, Kawaharazaki and I went to a small noodle shop near the police station and ordered two bowls of noodles, which was the first meal of the day.The vegetarian noodles I ordered have arrived, but his soba noodles in miso soup have not yet arrived.I stared at a TV set near the roof in the corner of the small noodle shop without moving my chopsticks.The news of Kisaki Kyoko's disappearance was being broadcast on TV. Hearing his question, I came back to my senses: "Ah? What did you say?"

Kawaharazaki looked at me with eyes that gave people an invisible pressure formed by his years of working as a criminal policeman, and said: "Could it be that you are also like young people of your age, and you have to wait for three minutes no matter what. Are you used to eating?" After going to work today, I have been investigating the case of consecutive robberies of convenience stores with Kawaharazaki.There are a lot of cases this fall, not only our Hachioji Police Station, but the entire area of ​​the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is shrouded in the shadow of increasing crime rates.Especially when there are so many vicious crimes, the criminal police feel that they are not enough.No, since I woke up this morning, I just had time to sit down and eat.

Kawaharazaki felt that there was something strange in my eyes: "What's the matter?" After speaking, he followed my gaze and looked back at the TV behind him. There are pictures of her. When the TV announcer started to report the news of a fire in a house, Kawarasaki turned his head and said, "Oh, the girl who lives next door to you is missing." "Who told the TV reporter?" "You are looking for the section chief and the director at the same time, asking to include her in the investigation target of the search headquarters, and you are so loud, who can't know!"

I bowed my head and stopped talking.Those actions really disrespected my direct leader, Kawarasaki. "Okay, it's been three minutes already, let's eat!" Kawarasaki said as if ordering. I lowered my head and pulled the noodles into my mouth. Late last Friday night, when I saw Nicky being run over to death by a car, I had an ominous premonition, so I immediately asked Chisong to accompany me upstairs again, and rang the bell in front of Jingzi's door, but I didn't hear anything after many rings.Akamatsu was puzzled by my actions, saying that a single girl occasionally spends the night out with her boyfriend, is it worth making such a fuss about?

I carefully put Nicky's body in a cardboard box, and asked Chisong if he could ask the police in the department to identify what car it was.He widened his eyes in surprise, and said angrily, who has the spare time to take care of your cat!I had no choice but to put the cardboard box containing Nicki on the balcony and prepare to send it to the Animal Health Center for cremation the next day. Jingzi: When you come back, no matter what time it is, you must tell me! I wrote such a note and stuffed it into her room through the crack of the door. On Saturday morning, I went to ring her doorbell again, but there was still no sound.So, I wrote two notes on the phone number of the police station, one was stuffed into her room through the crack of the door, and the other was stuffed into her mailbox on the first floor.

When I was about to leave home, Chisong called a taxi to pick me up, saying that there was an urgent meeting in the morning, and I was afraid that I would be too late by bus.Hearing that Jingzi hadn't come back yet, he offered to take the cardboard box containing Niqi and ask the police in the department for identification. That day until I got home around nine o'clock in the evening, Jingzi didn't contact me.When I walked to the front of the mailbox, I saw that the note I left for her was still in it.I never asked her parents' home phone number, nor where she worked.I don't think you should inquire too much about other people's private affairs.

Chisong said that it is possible for a 20-year-old girl to stay at a friend's house for two or three days, or go on a trip with her boyfriend for a few days, or go back to her parents' house to see her parents.However, my heart was very disturbed, and I couldn't calm down even if I said nothing.Akamatsu also said that he had already told the police in charge of identification that Nikki might become an important clue to solve the case in the future, and asked them to collect the necessary samples. On Sunday, Kyoko still didn't come back.I used the half-day break in the afternoon to go to the real estate company, identify myself, and ask them to open Jingzi's room.The room was nice and tidy, but pajamas and underwear were strewn about on the bed, indicating that the master would be back soon.

From the contract that Kyoko signed with the real estate company, I got the phone number of her parents' house in Shizuoka Prefecture and the phone number of her guarantor, a relative who lives in Saitama Prefecture.I called them right away.I was afraid they might worry, so I didn't say I was a policeman, only that I was Kyoko's friend.They all said that they hadn't seen Kyoko since school started.Her parents said that Kyoko had a good friend in high school in Tokyo, and told me her phone number so I could ask her.I immediately called her. Although she didn't know where Jingzi was going, she knew where Jingzi was working.

The owner of the store where Jingzi worked told me that Jingzi called a taxi at nearly two o'clock in the morning after getting off work on Friday night, and went home with another girl.The boss said quite angrily that Jingzi would not come to work on Saturday without even asking for a day off.I asked the boss for the phone number of the girl who went home with Kyoko, and the girl told me that after Kyoko got off the bus on the main road when he was about to go home, he went into a convenience store on the side of the road at about two o'clock. She doesn't know what happened next.

So, Kyoko was already at the doorstep, not long before Akamatsu and I came back.But it is certain that she did not return to the room, because her mailbox has not been touched since Friday.Kyoko should have disappeared on the road between the convenience store and the apartment.Nicky's death may really have something to do with Kyoko's disappearance. I contacted Jingzi's parents again, saying that maybe I was too worried, that Jingzi was probably missing, and that I was going to call the police and ask for a missing person notice.Her parents immediately asked for a missing person notice, so the news of Kyoko's disappearance began to be broadcast on the Saturday morning news on TV, and it was connected with the four previous incarceration murders.Thinking of what Akamatsu said that it could be used as a preventive, I felt that this was really bitter irony, and I couldn't help but feel a dull pain in my heart.

On Monday morning, Akamatsu reported Kyoko's disappearance to his superiors. In order to respect the opinions of Kyoko's parents and consider the connection with the four murders in prison, he requested a public search. The sooner Kyoko's case is resolved, the better.Although there are not many clues about the Jingzi incident, if Jingzi's disappearance is indeed related to the four previous murders in prison, it may become a breakthrough in solving the case.So I went to the captain of the criminal police and asked to participate in the investigation headquarters of the Kyoko case. After being rejected, I went to the director to ask, but was also refused on the spot.However, my determination to solve this case has not changed at all. After being rejected by the director, I came out and ran into Chisong by chance. He saw from my expression that my request was not fulfilled, and said a few words to me: "You want to participate in the search of the headquarters because you have already determined that Kyoko Kizaki was taken away by the habitual murderer. In fact, as a friend, what you should be thinking now is that she is having a tryst with her boyfriend in a restaurant by the sea." ...Maybe that's how it should be. "For example, when they heard the news that their relative's plane crashed, the family members were willing to believe that the relative missed the plane for some reason and escaped the disaster. Isn't that the case?" ...Maybe that's how it should be.No, it must be so! However, Jingzi made an appointment with me before, she will never leave here, if she is not seen for a few days, then she is missing, I must go find her!Kyoko's words echoed in my ears over and over again. "Hey! Why do you eat spaghetti one by one like a foreigner, without making a sound? Can you get the taste out of it?" Kawarasaki's reprimanded tone woke me up from my contemplation. "...I'm sorry..." However, I had no appetite, so I put down my chopsticks. Kawarasaki glanced at me: "How's the voice?" "what?" "Voice! Voice recorded on tape!" Because the identification department was too busy, I sent Runping's tape to the phonetic laboratory of a university that had helped the police solve the case, and asked them to help analyze the robber's English, especially the one who shouted "Be careful!" man's voice, they said the results would be available on Monday. "...I'm sorry... forgot..." "Fengxi Chaoshan turned out to be a discriminationist." "What do you mean by that?" "Do you think it doesn't matter that the injured person is just a Chinese student studying abroad, or do you only seriously solve the case if he is killed?" "Isn't it too much to invest so much police force on him? Stop it." "Too much? He traveled all the way to Japan to study and work while studying. Half of the income had to be sent back to his family. He was the first to be laid off. He finally found a job in a convenience store and was kidnapped by a robber. I was stabbed. Now lying in the hospital, not only the living expenses have not been paid, but the visa is about to expire. But, not only can't you catch the robber, you don't even want to work hard, I think you are going too far! " Hearing Kawarasaki's words, I was speechless. Kawaharazaki drank the noodle soup and deliberately made a loud noise. Although I realized that I was wrong, I still defended myself: "However, if Kisaki Kyoko was captured by that habitual criminal who imprisoned and murdered, if we don't rescue her quickly, I'm afraid..." "So now the department has mobilized a large number of criminal police officers and is doing their best to solve the case." "But wouldn't it be better if more people participated?" "You can't ignore the robber who steals money and kills! He is a serial robber. The possibility of stealing money and killing again is very high. The next time he commits a crime and stabs or stabs to death, it may be a woman, maybe Child! Such a criminal, Police Officer Chaoshan, can you just let him go?" "……no." "To be more serious, if another one is stabbed or stabbed to death, and the family members go to the police station to question, can you say that you ignored this side in order to catch other criminals?" I have nothing to say.However, the cry of "Come to me! Come to me!" thirteen years ago and Kyoko's voice asking me to go to her overlapped and echoed in my ears. "What's the matter with you?" Kawaharazaki probably noticed that I was abnormal, and his tone softened, "The disappearance of that girl made you so concerned. Is there any special reason?" "..." "Maybe I can help you. Even if I can't help you, it's easier to say what's hidden in my heart." Kawarasaki's voice became softer and softer, and my psychological defense almost collapsed. Tell him everything.But, is it easy to say it... I raised my head and forced a relaxed smile: "No, there is no special reason." Can this fake smile escape the eyes of an old policeman? "...Really?" Kawarasaki lowered his face, looked down at the empty rice bowl, and stopped talking. "I'll call the phonetics laboratory at the university right away." Sitting in front of Kawarasaki was a pain, so I got up and went to make a phone call. The teacher of the university's phonetic research office said that the results will come out soon, and you can talk to me about the results of the appraisal now.After I reported the situation to Kawarasaki, he went back to the office to arrange the next search plan, and I went to the university alone to get the identification results. On the tram to the university in Chofu, I suddenly felt that Kawarasaki's face resembled my father's, and I couldn't explain why. After puberty, the most common sentence I said to my father was: "This has nothing to do with you! Leave me alone!" At first, my father always shouted angrily: "This is the tone of talking to Dad!" Then his eyes became dim The light was gone, and he either turned his face to the side, or lowered his head and continued to read his newspaper.At that time, I thought my father was very pitiful. My elder brother went to high school outside the prefecture. After graduation, he worked in Kawasaki City and rarely went home, so the ratio of male to female in the family is two to one. In addition, no matter what I have in my heart, I always tell my mother, and my father becomes more and more Alienated.Although I often acted like a baby in front of my father when I was young, as I grew older, I kept more and more secrets from my father.For this reason, I was also angry with myself, but the more angry I became, the worse my attitude towards my father became. "This has nothing to do with you! Leave me alone!" The shouts became louder and louder. After I joined the work and lived alone for a period of time, I suddenly realized that although my father turned his face away at that time, he must be muttering in his heart: Son, please, tell me that I need my father... However, no matter how much I understand my father's lonely state of mind, it is a secret in my heart after all, so I really can't open my mouth to tell him.In fact, when I was at home, I never told my mother the real secret in my heart. It is generally believed that there is no concealment among family members, which is a good family.In fact, this is just an illusion.In my opinion, there are no more places than the secrets of the family, and it is precisely because everyone in the family has their own secrets that we can live together as a family.I'm not saying that it's a good thing not to share love and hate with family members, but I think it's better to respect the individual time and space of each family member than to be suffocated in a tense family environment, see It looks a little cold or nihilistic, but it is still bearable as an individual.The way of cutting yourself off and losing yourself is simply unbearable... From Chofu Station, I walked to the communication room of the university, and inquired about the location of the Voice Research Office. The so-called Speech Lab is located in an unremarkable corner of the university campus. It is a small building made of bricks. The outer wall is covered with ivy, and it looks like it is in danger of collapsing at any time.When I entered the door, I saw books and tapes piled up high, like a hill, as if they were about to fall down on me.In addition, there is a disgusting smell, which makes me dare not breathe. "Is anyone there?" I pinched my nose and called out. A male teacher in his thirties with a long chin and slanted eyes appeared in front of him and said his name was Machang.He brought a small chair and placed it between the hills of books and tapes for me to sit on.The tape was identified by him.The official identification papers will not be written until a week later, but oral explanations can be made now. "Maybe it's not a foreigner." Baba said bluntly, breathing out through his nose while speaking, "You also think the robber's English is a bit strange? His mother tongue is indeed not English. It sounds like People from Arab countries, but they are clearly pretending." "Pretending?" "That's right! In other words, it's a deliberate imitation, it sounds unnatural, and it's deliberately pretending to speak in a different tone from the Japanese." "Then the robber is Japanese?" "I'm not sure. There are too few materials that can be used for analysis, and the criminals pay attention to using short sentences. I can only say that it is very likely that they are Japanese." Ma Chang exhaled while talking, and it was unclear whether he was exhaling or laughing. It seemed that he was an invisible person. After recording it in my notebook, I asked: "About that What about the strange man's voice?" "Nothing was analyzed!" "Nothing at all?" "Just one voice, what can I analyze? However, I have analyzed the voice of the third person very fully, because he not only said a lot of words, but also sang a lot of songs. It can be concluded that his age is in the Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two, originally from the Seto Inland Sea area." "Oh, no, there's no need to analyze his voice." "Really? I put a lot of effort into analyzing his voice. His voice quality is very good. Such a good voice is very rare." What Machang said attracted me: "Then please tell me?" "Didn't you say you don't need it?" "It's not completely unnecessary, just tell me!" "Then I'll talk about it. When people speak, you have the right to treat it as a sound." "You mean singing?" "No, for example, the sound of the guitar, the sound of the violin, and the sound of the bass are all the sounds of stringed instruments, but do you feel the same emotion when you listen to them?" "It depends on what the song is." "Of course, happy tunes, sad tunes, and the content of the tunes are different, giving people different impressions. I mean the most basic sound made by the instrument itself. Don't you think that different instruments will cause people to be different? Do you feel like you feel? For example, the violin makes people feel sad, and the guitar makes people feel passionate. When composers of classical music compose, they always take into account which instrument they use when playing, because the sound produced by each instrument is different. Hearing the sound of a certain instrument will naturally arouse a certain emotion in people. Composers have cleverly used the characteristics of various instruments... What I want to say is that the voice of people is the same.” "Is it that people often say that this person has a nice voice and that person has a bad voice?" "Almost. Generally speaking, it sounds good. In fact, the fundamental reason for making people feel good is the person's range and sound quality. As for the sound, different people will have different feelings and expressions, and it cannot be simply divided. There are two kinds of good-sounding and bad-sounding. There are many impressions of speaking voices, which are far beyond our imagination. For example, there are such expressions in literature, that person's voice is like the music of heaven, and that person's voice is like a wire ...The above are writers Inoue Yasushi and Shishi Bunroku's descriptions of people's voices. There is also a female writer Hayashi Fumiko. She describes someone's voice as an annoying voice that is gradually buried underground. Scary or not ?” "And what about his voice?" Bachang snorted a few more times—hope some writer can describe his voice.He didn't answer my question directly, but gave me a lesson: "The research topic of our research group is, what kind of voice a person speaks, what kind of emotion can arouse the other party, and give a specific classification. Hearing a certain kind of speech After listening to the voice, there may be more than 30 emotions such as joy, sadness, decadence, powerlessness, anger, loneliness, etc. We randomly collected the voices of celebrities or ordinary people, men, women, and children, and let college students or other people listen to them, and then Classify them according to their responses. We found that people’s reactions to a certain speaking voice have a lot in common. This shows that there is a certain secret in that speaking voice. To uncover this secret, it is our research laboratory In the tape you brought this time, the voice of the young man who talks the most belongs to the category of loneliness in our classification." "Is it rare?" "No, it's not uncommon to hear voices that make people feel lonely. However, there are two types of loneliness. One is lonely and painful, which generally belong to this type. The other is lonely but comforting, giving people Inspiring, giving courage..." "Lonely but comforting..." "This kind of speaking voice is very rare, but it is more common among singers. The young man's voice in your tape belongs to this kind." "Is that his voice?" "Yes! A lonely song." "Singing alone?" "This is a name given by one of my students. Singers don't become singers because they realize what type of voice they have. People like singers, it should be because of the secrets in the singer's voice. .” At this time, a strange voice came out, even a little lonely.I looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, and Ma Chang laughed: "Now it's the song of hunger, I haven't had dinner yet." "Ah? So the voice just now came from your stomach..." I couldn't help standing up. "I'm so sorry, you came in just after making a bowl of instant noodles." "So, is it still soaking?" "yes." "I'm sorry! It's really not the right time. I've caused you trouble. Why didn't you say it earlier?" "It's okay, it's okay, how about I eat it first? It will rot after soaking it..." "Ah, please eat it! However, after soaking for so long, can I still eat it?" "It's okay, I've been used to it for a long time. I often go to work after soaking in it, even when it's cooling off." Machang said, passing through the hill of books and tapes deftly, and brought a piece of paper back to the corner of the room. Bowl of instant noodles. My eyes fell on a newspaper on the table, which reported the recent serial incarceration killings with headlines. Machang came back with instant noodles and noticed that I saw the report: "Ah, that case is really cruel. Are you responsible for solving that case?" "what?" "Women will feel sad when they read this kind of report. Did you live alone?" "No, live with my parents." I can't explain why I lied, it's not because I'm on guard, but because I don't want to continue this topic. "It was said in the newspaper that the disappearance was not discovered in time because it was done by one person alone. It seems that the criminals took advantage of this loophole... By the way, do you eat? There are others." The horse farm may have realized that I I don't want to continue this topic. "No, I just ate." "This kind of instant noodles is delicious. In the convenience store in front of the school, I heard students say that this kind of instant noodles is delicious. After buying it, it tastes really good. The more you eat, the more addictive it becomes. All women buy this kind of instant noodles. There are many young and beautiful girls who go to convenience stores to buy things in the middle of the night..." Suddenly, some words that Jingzi said emerged from the bottom of the memory, which were some words she said after I knocked her down with a high-voltage electric baton that day.At that time, I felt very boring and didn't take it seriously. Indeed, these young women who were imprisoned and then killed all lived alone, and all disappeared after going out on the streets at night.This is a detail that is not very noticeable, but as a criminal policeman, you should not let go of any detail. After I said goodbye to the horse farm, I walked out of the university campus and immediately called Akamatsu who must be hiding in the investigation headquarters of the Hachioji Police Station.