Chapter 23 2. The death of Mrs. Okuda

A major fire suddenly broke out at a general hospital in the Hachioji area of ​​Tokyo.Although a large number of firefighters fought desperately, it was still difficult to contain the fire. By the time the fire was extinguished in the early morning, three quarters of the huge hospital had been burned. When cleaning up the scene, people found a charred body. After investigation, it was Mrs. Okuda who had a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital for treatment - 53-year-old Reiko Okuda. The news of the fire in the hospital and the death of Mrs. Okuda spread quickly through television, all over the country.

Totsukawa and Kamei noticed this unusual news sensitively, thinking of Okuda's inexplicable disappearance, they rushed to the hospital immediately. A nurse at the hospital told them that the patients had undergone multiple emergency evacuation trainings after being hospitalized. If Mrs. Okuda could evacuate according to the prescribed emergency route in the event of a fire, she would definitely be rescued.In fact, the other patients were safe and sound, but it was strange that Mrs. Okuda ran in the opposite direction of the emergency exit when the fire was triggered, and she was burned to death.

Yoshiko Misaki, a patient in Mrs. Okuda's room, also confirmed that Mrs. Okuda fled the ward first when the fire broke out, and doctors and nurses were on the scene directing everyone to evacuate. She thought that Mrs. Okuda would definitely escape, but she unexpectedly walked in the opposite direction. Go, only to be burned to death. Totsukawa and Kamei heard about the situation and decided to send the body to the judiciary for an autopsy.Then, the two went to investigate according to the address of the messenger Waishangong provided by the hostess of the "Flag" hotel, but there was no such person there.

The next day, the judicial department's autopsy report came out.The cause of Mrs. Okuda's death was suffocation, but there was no soot in her lungs, and she didn't even inhale soot in her throat. In this way, her cause of death was more complicated. Totsukawa and Kamei believed that Mrs. Okuda must not have been directly burned to death by the fire, but had been strangled to death, and the murderer was most likely the arsonist.He took advantage of the fire and hid in the dark of the corridor. When Mrs. Okuda came out, he covered her mouth and nose with his hands, and dragged her to the opposite direction of the emergency exit.Mrs. Okuda was already weak and sickly, so naturally she had no resistance at all, and she suffocated to death in a short while.

In order to quickly find out the case of Mrs. Okuda, the police decided to set up a search headquarters at the Hachioji Police Station, with Totsukawa personally in charge. Soon, news about the case spread to the headquarters bit by bit.Someone reported that a young woman called the hospital at about 2:00 pm the day before the fire broke out in the hospital. She claimed to be a relative of Mrs. Okuda and asked the hospital to tell her the ward number of Mrs. Okuda, but she did not see the woman afterward. Hospital. Totsukawa and Kamei thought this young woman was very suspicious. Maybe they and their gang did the hospital arson with the purpose of killing Mrs. Okuda, so why did they kill this timid housewife who stayed at home?The crux of the problem is most likely related to her husband, who used to work as a criminal police detective to solve many cases and is still missing.

Things have developed to this extent, and strange things have emerged one after another, one after another. Totsukawa listed the following strange things: 1. A young woman pretending to be Okuda's daughter appears. 2. Someone stole the 14 photos and all the negatives. 3. Okuda once said that he would follow the advice of his colleagues and go to a place with hot springs to recuperate after retirement, but there are no hot springs at all along the Kiso Line. 4. The mysterious death of Mrs. Okuda. So Totsukawa took Kamei to search Okuda's residence in Mitaka. Okuda's living room is very small, only a couple can live there.They first looked at the Okuda couple's letters and photo albums, but the results were disappointing. Neither the contents of the letters nor the photo albums had anything to do with the Kiso Line.

Disappointed, Totsukawa had no choice but to prepare for the next step to investigate the situation with all the neighbors and managers in the apartment where Okuda lived after retirement. He really felt that the case was getting more and more complicated. At this time, a police detective named Shimizu reminded: "Police, will Okuda-kun read the Kiso Line travel guide and suddenly have the idea of ​​traveling there?" Totsukawa was very puzzled: "During the search, there was no such material as a Kiso Line travel guide in the house. Okuda is a cautious person, and he would not act rashly without mental preparation."

The detectives expressed their opinions around this issue, and the debate was very heated.Totsukawa listened to the discussion with relish, and finally asked Kamei: "Now there are two opinions, what do you think?" Kamei smiled and said: "Both of these possibilities can be established, but there is no evidence yet. There is only one thing we really want to know, and that is the truth."