Chapter 35 Section VI

Dongcun and Zhuying returned from Ito, and when they arrived at the Metropolitan Police Department, they began to list the unidentified dead, and at the same time commissioned the entire police system to search for Hino Katsuko's whereabouts across the country.The possibility that she is still alive cannot be dismissed.Of course, I also contacted the Coast Guard and asked for assistance in finding witnesses who saw Seta riding a motorboat that day. In the list of known unidentified bodies, no women who could be Katsuko Hino were found.This is to be expected.Since Seta was not afraid of being seen by others and took Hino out to sea on purpose, he must have planned to throw Hino into the Kuroshio River Basin.There is little chance that the body will make it to the coast of the United States, or it must have been buried in the belly of the fish.The chances of the body being found by a sailing ship are even slimmer.The sea is so vast, not to mention floating corpses, even the radio beacons set by drifters on rafts are not easy to be found.

Unless the body is salvaged, Seta can be found guilty of homicide.Even if Seta turned himself in and said he killed Katsuko Hino and threw her into the Pacific Ocean, nothing would happen to him. Seta had a good time.The Coast Guard's reply was worthless.Seta knew it would be like this. There is no report on the whereabouts of Katsuko Hino across the country. On September 27, Dongcun went to the hospital to "visit" Seta. Seta's expression was bright, and the sense of fear had long since disappeared.In other words, he has summoned up all his strength to fight with all his might.

"Sit down." Seta said generously, "But from your expression, it seems that you still haven't found Hino-kun's whereabouts, and you haven't found her body either." Those gazes that once burned with hatred and fear now turned into only rational tenacity. "You took Katsuko Hino out to sea on a motorboat. It is said that she got off the motorboat on the way. Please tell me where she got off the motorboat." "I don't know who gave this testimony?! That woman is not Hino-kun." Seta even had a smile on his face. "Not Hino? Then who?"

"I met at the pier—or rather, after she came up to talk to me. I didn't even ask her name. I like mysterious love. The other party seems to be the same. But on the way to Chengyu Island, she Said she was seasick, so I let her disembark at Kamakura. She paid the boat fare and broke up with me. That's all." Seta didn't look away.Instead, the focus of his eyes was fixed on Winter Village, and the smile on his face disappeared. "Did anyone see the lady when she disembarked?" "Tell you, there are few people on the beach. As for finding witnesses to judge the authenticity of my testimony, isn't it your responsibility? The responsibility to produce evidence is not on me. It is on you. Even this If you can't do anything well, you should stop your unnecessary doubts about me as soon as possible!"

"No matter what. I will keep an eye on you." Dongcun stood up and said goodbye.Suddenly he felt weak all over. "I just hope you stop trying to be brave. By the way, it was the guy from the marina who proved that I took a woman on board. But at that time he was just looking at the lower body of the woman. He was just a little bit of a woman's face. And it was more than 40 days ago. From the time you showed him the photo until he nodded and said yes, if you show him another photo of a woman, it will lead to the same goal by different routes, and the result will be the same. .My counsel will easily and effortlessly destroy this kind of testimony. Even if you find a dead body, if you can't confirm that it is Katsuko Hino, it will be completely useless."

"I will remember." "Come back later, then. I'm glad to see you languishing out the door." Winter Village left the voice behind and walked out the door.As soon as he went out, the feeling of powerlessness that permeated his whole body was released all of a sudden. Dongcun knew very well what Seta's spiritual pillar was—the corpses of Hino Katsuko had all disappeared.Throwing into the Kuroshio on August 19th, today is September 27th, and no body has been found so far, so his worries are gone. This kind of self-confidence is like a strong muscle, supporting Seta.

Dongcun walked and thought: It seems impossible to expect Katsuko Hino's body to be buried somewhere within two hours of the motorboat.If it was buried on land, then Seta would not ignore the testimony of the young man at the yacht dock and still adopt this tough attitude. ——This is the end? Although the search went through a lot of twists and turns, it ended in an anticlimactic manner, which made people feel bad afterward.The only witness who could overturn the testimony of the period when Seta pushed Inoue down the stairs died.It's just a dream.No matter how many pieces of evidence there are in dreams and fantasies, they cannot be put in reality for deliberation.

Dongcun has a feeling: Seta may be elected as the first professor of internal medicine in the Department of Medicine of T University, which is an authority in the medical field.Dongcun knew nothing about the inside story of his campaign, but he had a premonition that Seta Shuhei might be elected.Seta's sensible and capable appearance, coupled with his sharp offensive stance when he made up his mind-no matter in any respect, there was nothing disturbing about it. Dongcun smiled wryly, and it seemed that Seta Shuhei, who had been elected as a professor, disappeared from the hospital, while he was ashamed and conspicuous, lost his qualifications as a policeman, and thought about his mistakes behind closed doors.

The Chief of the First Search Section, Nomi, is waiting to return to the Winter Village of the Metropolitan Police Department.At this time, it seemed that it was time to get off work. "Sit down." Nengjian held a document in his hand, "Do you think Akio Kurata is not the murderer but someone else?" "yes." Dongcun felt that the atmosphere was a bit unusual. "You screen out suspicious persons one by one, and then eliminate them one by one. In the end, Seta Shuhei is left. You treat Seta as the real murderer and confront him, isn't that true?" "Section Chief, what do you want to say?" Dongcun felt strongly disturbed, but he still asked.

"What would have happened if Seta hadn't killed Katsuko Hino?" "..." "During the investigation of this case, you did not lack a calm attitude at the beginning, so I have always considered your work performance so far, and I trust what you said. But why do you..." "Wait a minute. What is that document in your hand?" Although he could see the turning point of the speech, Dongcun could still hear the sound in the words. "This is a situation report from the Kochi Prefectural Police Department. It is a report on the whereabouts of Katsuko Hino, who has been reported to the national police system. It is believed that the floating body of Katsuko Hino was found by a fishing boat at Cape Ashitoji, Kochi Prefecture. The date is August 20. The results of the autopsy showed that he had been dead for about ten days, and the cause of death was drowning. But after all, the time had passed too long, and the dead body had decomposed. It barely kept the original shape intact, but the identity is unknown. According to the report, the recorded Then it was buried."

Neng Jian stopped Huatou and looked at Dongcun. "That floating corpse..." Dongcun suddenly felt as if he had suffered a sudden shock, and an electric current rippled through his body. "It is said that it is Katsuko Hino who is still looking for. The blood type is the same, and the body and age are also similar." "However, based on this alone, it can be concluded that it is Katsuko Hino..." Dongcun's voice trembled with tension. "Of course, based on these alone, it cannot be concluded that it is Katsuko Hino." Noble stared at Dongcun with piercing eyes. "The dead body had two false teeth. Katsuko Hino had two false teeth inserted in the same place in Kofu City before coming to Tokyo. The tooth shape taken from the corpse was sent to the Yamanashi Prefectural Police Station. After entrusted investigation, it was proved that Its tooth shape is consistent with that of Katsuko Hino." "..." Dongcun stared blankly at Nomi with a ruddy complexion.The visible outline became blurred, and Seta's appearance appeared behind the outline.Seta was holding up his cane and hitting Jiro fiercely—— "I heard that Seta has a complete record of whereabouts after August 19?" "Yes. Hospitals, universities, venues—the election is approaching, every minute of his time has been programmed into the schedule, and the whereabouts list was made by himself and handed in. If he wants to go out with Katsuko Hino, That can only be the nineteenth day." Cold sweat gradually oozes from Dongcun's forehead. "So, it is impossible for Seta to be the murderer. If the time of death has been ten days, then between August 19th and 20th, Hino Katsuko was at the southwestern end of Kochi Prefecture. Assuming that there are more than the number of days of death If you add three days of estimation error, then it will be between August 17th and August 23rd. Is it possible for Seta to go to Kochi during this period?" "There is no such possibility. In order to confirm the whereabouts list proposed by Seta, we have conducted a careful inspection, and found no loopholes." "Then it means that Seta is innocent, just like his testimony said, the woman on the motorboat in Ito was not Katsuko Hino." "..." "Is there anything else to say?" "No." Dongcun lowered his head and replied. "If not, then go and apologize to Seta." Noble scolded. "Apologize?……" "Yes. You doubted innocent people in vain and challenged him blatantly. At this time, Seta was facing a very important professor election. And you don't even know this, so what's the point? You rely on Using legal power to bully others, regardless of feelings, is really a bad idea." His voice was hoarse as he shouted. "Please don't misunderstand." Fuyumura said angrily, "You don't think such a thing will happen, but this does not mean that Seta is not a real criminal." "You still say that?!" "It was Seta who killed Katsuko Hino, not someone else." "That means Seta went to Kochi, doesn't it?"