Chapter 11 1. Counter No. 15

Tragedy is inevitable. If Keiji Miyatake was still the director on the third floor of the Ebisu department store, such a vicious case would not have occurred at counter No. 15. It's a pity that Director Gong Wu was fired by the store a week ago because he was implicated in something.The new director of the third floor, Keiji Sawai, has just been transferred from the Osaka branch, and he is not very familiar with the situation in the store, so he can't handle the situation properly.Coincidentally, the director of the counter and the old clerk Akira Isono also left the counter at that time.

Not long before the incident happened, around 4:30 p.m., Aki Isono said to the new clerk Fushimi Junko: "Fushimi, I'm sorry... Please take care of the counter, I have something to leave..." He said His face flushed slightly. "Ah! What's wrong with you? And..." The young Fushimi Junko looked at her innocently. "Hmm!..." Her face was rosy, like a beautiful sunset, and people gave her a good name - "Cosmos". "There is really no way. I should have taken a menstrual leave. Calculated by the number of days, it should take another two or three days, but this month it was brought forward again."

Her long eyelashes turned to the floor, as if talking to herself.Although Akira Isino entered the store earlier than Junko Fushimi, and she is 7 years older, she treats people with kindness and enthusiasm, and Shunzi likes her very much. "Oh, go ahead, I'll take care of this place, if there's anything I don't understand, I can ask the director." Shunzi agreed kindly. "Then, I'm counting on you." As soon as Isono Akira left the counter, he trotted past the women's clothing counter next to him and came to the clothing design room.Wooden mannequins, dressed in finished or semi-finished women's fashion, stood upright in a circle in the dim light.Behind the design room is the staff toilet. This is to distinguish it from the customer toilet. The store repairs the staff toilet in a place where ordinary customers cannot see it.

At that time, the third floor was relatively deserted.Although the store is a seven-story building, it is not very luxurious.Due to its good reputation, customers have flooded the door in the past few years, and the business is booming.After the war, all department stores paid great attention to reputation. In addition, the store lacked a complete range of products, and the stores that could not compete with the same industry had begun to decline.At present, the above fourth floor has been rented out as an entertainment place or an office, and only the first to third floors of the store are still open.Among them, the third floor is the precious gold and silver jewelry department, women's clothing department, musical instrument department, luxury furniture department, etc., all of which are expensive commodity counters with few customers. Already few.

The current season is already November, at 4:30 in the afternoon, the sky has begun to darken, and the hall with few customers seems empty and very deserted. "It's so hard to be a woman!..." Fushimi Junko was the only one left at counter No. 15, leaning her back against the counter, thinking blankly. Shunzi is 18 years old this year. She studied in a girls' school before she got a job. Because her family was poor, she dropped out of school and became a shop assistant. She was assigned to the shop just ten days ago.At first, she thought that being a shop assistant was nothing special, but she gradually realized that doing this job is quite difficult. The store has not been heated yet, and it is cold from the waist down.At the same time, because the No. 15 counter is dedicated to precious jewelry, there are few customers, and the young Fushimi Shunko feels very lonely.Occasionally, a customer would come, and they would be noble ladies, young ladies and other picky guests, so standing at this counter was a very difficult job.

Shunzi continued to think: Akira Isano is elegant and beautiful, and she is very suitable to work at this counter.It's not suitable for a newcomer like me to do this job; if I can go to the toy department or the grocery department, that would be great!Simple and hilarious... While thinking wildly, there was a sound of "cracking" and "cracking" footsteps approaching from far away.Shunzi turned her head hastily, and found that the person who came was a woman in a suit. She was standing in front of the counter, looking down at the products displayed in the cabinet. "Ah!..." Shunzi walked over hurriedly, muttering...

Regarding the scene at that time, Shunzi later described it as follows: "When I spotted her, she was already standing in front of the counter, looking down at the jewellery. I didn't see her face. This person's face was covered with a veil, which seemed to be two layers... You ask her costume? I remember: she was wearing a black western-style jacket, very good material, and a pair of black gloves. I don't remember the rest. But I never dreamed that such a terrible thing would happen... ..." When Sunja approached the masked girl, she pointed at the mosquito in the closet with a gloved hand and said, "Please show me the brooch!"

Sunja took out the brooch, and she looked at it in her hand before pointing to another kind of brooch.When Shunzi showed it to her, she still didn't like it, and pointed to the bracelet again... her voice was always as low as that of a mosquito. In this way, brooches, bracelets, rings, and pearl necklaces were placed on the counter.When Shunzi followed her request and lowered her head and reached into the display cabinet to get the compact containing gemstones, the woman's hand moved somehow, and suddenly a bright light flashed on the mirror of the other compact. superior.It turned out that there was something luminous hidden in her hand.

Shunzi was startled by the flashing light, her heart was beating wildly, and her legs were trembling. She took out the compact and straightened up, as if she had done something wrong, with a sad face, looking at the scene in panic. female customer. The woman still took the compact as if nothing had happened, and put it in her hand. Shunja quickly scanned the counter, and suddenly found that two rings and a brooch, worth more than 3,000 yuan, were missing. Shunzi looked around in fear, hoping to see the director on the third floor.According to the store's regulations, even if customers are found to have stolen the goods, they are not allowed to make noise, let alone reprimand customers, so as not to hurt the customer's self-esteem and affect the store's reputation.

At this time, Shunzi was supposed to report to the director immediately, but because Akira Isino had not returned, if she wanted to leave again, the counter would play an empty trick. With a mournful face, Shunzi looked around and finally found Director Keikichi Sawai.Perhaps it was due to his duty. He sensed what had happened from Shunzi's expression, so he immediately left his seat, hurried to the No. 15 counter, and said to the masked girl, "The store owes you much attention." , thank you very much!" Sawai Keikichi rubbed his hands together while winking at Junko.The pale-faced Shunzi understood, pointed to the rings and took out 2, and pointed to the brooch to take out 1.Sawai nodded, then turned to the customer: "I'm really sorry, can you come to the office with me, please?" Sawai's tone was very kind.But hearing the director's question, the masked girl's hand, which was fiddling with the compact, couldn't help shaking.

"Don't waste your time, just for a while." With a "snap", the woman threw the compact on the counter, turned around and left, Sawai stretched out his hand to hold her. "Please don't mind!... This kind of thing often happens, and some things need to be clarified in person... You should come to the office with me." Although Director Sawai's tone was still very friendly, the fingers grasping the wrist had already pinched into the opponent's flesh. The woman twisted vigorously a few times, but she still couldn't get out. Hearing the voices here, Shibazaki Zhujiang, a salesperson in the women's clothing department next door, also turned her face away. Seeing this situation, she hastily said, "Oh, no! Director, she is..." She shouted anxiously. Hastily ran around the counter. At this moment, Director Sawai, who was holding on tightly to the masked girl, suddenly collapsed on the floor as if he had a cramp. Fushimi Junko said while recalling the scene: "At first I didn't understand what was going on, I saw the director's body suddenly tightened, but he didn't let go of the woman's hand, and then, like As if broken, the director collapsed on the floor. There was no sound during the whole process, and I was stunned. Shibazaki Zhujiang next to me yelled, and when I turned my head, the masked woman had already run towards the stairs. Go. Just in time for the end of the movie on the seventh floor, the stream of people poured down like a flood that burst an embankment. She squeezed into the crowd and disappeared soon. The time is so short, we haven't figured out what's going on yet. " Shibazaki Zhujiang of the women's clothing department said roughly the same as Fushimi Junko: "When I recognized the woman, the director had already twisted her wrist and pulled her towards the office. I think the woman is a regular customer in the store. Well, the new director may not understand the situation yet, so he ran over if it was necessary to remind him. But at this moment, the director was already limp on the floor... But is this masked woman the woman who used to come here often? , I can't tell, they all covered their faces with veils, and the time was short, so..." But he said that after hearing Shibazaki Zhujiang's yell, the customers and salespersons on the third floor came here. "What happened? Why the noise? Ah! What's the matter with the director?" One of the male clerks squatted beside Director Sawai, and suddenly leaned back in panic: "Ah! Not good, there is a bloody hole in the director's body!" Shunzi's nerves were extremely tense, and she screamed crazily: "It was that masked woman, that female thief did it! Kill...killed, killed!" Shunzi fell to the ground and fainted immediately.