Chapter 8 Chapter VIII Unintentional Certification

That photo gradually caught the attention of Imaizumi Naotoshi.At first he didn't pay enough attention to this photo, thinking that it was just an ordinary "passer-by" among many pedestrians.But as time went on, he felt more and more that something was wrong. Because that road is originally a beast way, it is impossible for ordinary people to walk.Of course there were people who left, but most of them were hunters, woodcutters, people who worked in the mountains, or people from the Forestry Department who patrolled the mountains.Occasionally, climbers get lost and enter this road by mistake.

But in Imaizumi's impression, the people in the photos don't seem to be any of the above-mentioned people.Not likely because he only saw part of the person in the photo. Two people go up the mountain, and only one returns, so where did the other go?Maybe a breakup along the way?But there is no road that anyone can walk nearby.If they were lost and followed the path of beasts, then the two should always be together.During the self-question and self-answer, he had an ominous premonition about the departure of the remaining person, and this premonition rapidly expanded and expanded.He couldn't help smiling wryly: he blamed himself for reading too many mystery novels.Although he wanted to dispel this idea, the more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became.

Naotoshi Imaizumi is a professional photographer, but instead of tracking people or a certain event, he has been photographing the ecology of animals from beginning to end.He sat calmly in the habitat of animals and took ecological photos close to the animals. He has a very high reputation in the field of animal ecological photography. The photos he took of Xiyuan Island's lynx, otters, crabs laying eggs, and the life of praying mantises in this way have become precious research materials in the academic circles. His most successful work recently is a year of animal ecology photos taken by automatic cameras installed on the trails in Mt. Oku-Chichibu.The shooting time was from the beginning of March last year to the end of March this year.

During these 13 months, as the seasons changed, he took pictures of various animals moving on this path. All kinds of animals seem to be running around, but in fact they all have their own living ranges.They are born, prey, and reproduce in their respective worlds.Between the mountains and fields, there are signs of the life of these animals everywhere.Following their footprints, feces, bite marks left on food, and carcasses, one will naturally find a passage through feeding grounds, water sources, habitats, mud baths, nests and other indispensable places for animal life. Imaizumi became fascinated by this beast-infested path.

What does the road mean to animals?Out of his extensive interest in animals and his tenacious perseverance, he has successfully shown the "traffic conditions" on the so far enigmatic path and the ecology of animals passing through the path, making the ecological research of animals a reality. New possibilities emerged. The original research topic was that he wanted to develop a sensing device that could transmit information to the camera when the animal was present.Imaizumi decided to use photocells.Metals and certain semiconductors have the property of receiving light and releasing electrons. The electron tube that uses this principle to convert the intensity of light into electrical energy is a photoelectric tube. It is composed of a cathode that emits photoelectrons and an anode that receives photoelectrons. Electromagnetic waves, when they are blocked by objects, are converted into electrical signals.

Photocells have a wide range of uses and can be used in measurement, communication, automatic control, etc., and can also be used as sensing devices, safety confirmation devices, etc.Based on the above uses, Imaizumi has identified photocells. Theoretically speaking, if this device is placed on both sides of the animal path, the animals passing through this device should be photographed by the camera. In the actual application process, there are many problems to be solved.First, visible light cannot be used without the animal being aware of the presence of the sensor.The power supply can only use batteries, so the consumption of electric energy must be reduced as much as possible.In addition, since the device is to be placed on a high mountain in the wild, it is required to withstand natural phenomena such as wind, rain, snow, and drastic changes in temperature throughout the year to maintain stable working accuracy.

Imaizumi finally produced a test device that can meet various conditions, but many problems still occurred during actual shooting. A flash is a must for photographing nocturnal animals, and the power consumption of the flash is unexpectedly large.In order to find a suitable power supply, prevent leakage caused by humidity, and solve problems such as poor lighting, Imaizumi was extremely busy. At first, he placed the induction device on the mountaineering road about 3 kilometers away from the village in the glacier area on the side of Tokyo, but he did not expect that those ignorant climbers and tourists would play around and destroy three of the painstakingly developed experimental devices.

He had no choice but to leave the climbing path and conduct another experiment. After that, he placed the sensing device and the camera in the low-lying area between the two peaks of Mount Oku-Chichibu and Mount Sanfeng, near Longdong Valley at an altitude of about 1200 to 1300 meters. on the bestial path.In order to grasp the traffic situation of animals, he installed devices with exactly the same performance between two points AB. The distance between A and B is 2500 meters.It is said that this is the deepest part of the mystery of Chichibu.Hemingcang Mountain has become bare due to deforestation, but the virgin forest of Longdong Valley still remains the same.In this way, the bears, deer, wild boars, monkeys, squirrels, flying squirrels, foxes, hares and other animals from Mount Mingcang all gathered in Longdong Valley, and this place became the last paradise for animals.It would be ideal to place a camera here.

Initially, Imaizumi adjusted the height of the electromagnetic wave to a position two or three centimeters above the ground. It took a lot of film to start shooting wild mice, and the sensitivity of the sensing device was too high, even the raining scene was photographed. After repeated failures, the filming work was finally on the right track, but three years have passed since the successful research of the experimental device. In order to keep the sensing device away from insects, Imaizumi adjusted the height of the electromagnetic wave to about 10 centimeters from the ground, and at the same time reduced the sensitivity of the sensing device, so that the desired animal was finally photographed.

Among the animals photographed, voles are the most, and the rest include hares, squirrels, toads, monkeys, wild boars, minks, wild pigeons, etc. Bears, antelopes, and foxes, which I most want to photograph, were not photographed.In addition, the most undesirable "animals" - 9 people - were photographed. Although it is a human, but because the angle of the camera lens focuses on the animal, only the parts below the legs can be photographed.Judging from the legs and feet of these nine people, it is possible that three of them were climbers, two were hunters, two were working on the mountain, and the remaining two could not be distinguished.Both men were wearing leather ankle boots and trousers that only people in the city wear.

People who come to the mountains and walk on animal paths that most people don't go into, wearing short boots that look like they are walking on the road in the city, shouldn't be there. If there are, they can only be lost.Could it be that the tourists think that this place is still a part of the city, so they strayed into the animal path by wandering? But this area is known as the last secret place of Okuchibu, and it is difficult for ordinary tourists to come in.Was it attracted by the latest adventure craze? The shooting dates were 15:05 and 18:03 on September 18 last year. It was taken by the camera set at point A, but not by the camera at point B.At that time, because it was still daylight, the flash did not activate.In other words, within three hours, the camera at Point A captured the same person twice.From the direction of his feet, it was clear that he walked back and forth on the animal path. What puzzles Imaizumi is that there are two people going up the mountain and one person going down the mountain.This can only show that two people walked through point A together when going up the mountain, and before reaching point B, the two broke up, and one of them returned from the original road.Judging from the fact that no one walked past point B, the other person walked in a different direction between points AB when we broke up. Imaizumi knew very well that there was no fork between them, only the primary forests of beech and juniper trees mixed together, and the ground was covered with lush mountain white bamboos and shrubs. Two people, presumably men, walk into the animal path together, and one of them disappears between points AB.What does it mean to disappear in the mountains? Imaizumi, who was full of doubts, zoomed in on the above-mentioned relevant photos for observation.The two followed each other one after the other.Probably because the animal path was too narrow, the two couldn't walk side by side, just like climbers often line up in a single file when walking along the mountain path. "Hey, is this the shadow of the crutch?" Imaizumi suddenly narrowed his eyes and stared at the photo.The light came from behind, as if a long stick-like shadow fell on the ground from the back of the person in front.If it's a crutch, it's in the wrong place.It looked like the person in the back was holding the stick in the back of the person in front. What do you use to hold it up?It looks neither like a climbing pick nor like a walking stick.Why is there such a strange action?Imaizumi, who was puzzled, was suddenly frightened by a flash of thought that flashed through his mind. "Isn't this a gun!" Once this kind of thought arises, the slender reflection looks like a gun no matter what.One person used a gun to force another person to go to the animal path, and only one person came back. According to this situation, there is only one possibility, that is, one person was killed between points AB, and the body was just before point AB. somewhere in between. The distance between points AB, walk at the pace of ordinary people, no matter how slow, 10 minutes is enough, and the road is not very steep.Those two people passed point A at 3:05 pm, and only one person came back about three hours later.This means that the murder was carried out within these three hours, and the person who was killed was buried in the mountain.Then these three hours are probably the time required for committing a crime and exterminating the corpse. There is no doubt that a person was killed on the animal path in Mount Oku-Chichibu.Imaizumi is so confident in his reasoning that he cannot hide his reasoning in his heart.Someone was killed, but you have "evidence photos", can you keep it secret and not report it? Not knowing what to do, Imaizumi asked his friend Shimoda to discuss.Shimoda was a classmate of Imaizumi's high school days and became a policeman after graduation. He is also a fan of mystery novels.They borrowed their saved books from each other, and their relationship gradually became intimate.Shimoda once told him that his boyhood dream was to become a famous detective like Sherlock and Sherlock Holmes in the future.Now that he has become a criminal policeman in the First Investigation Section of the Metropolitan Police Department, his dream has more or less come true. Shimoda listened carefully to what Imaizumi had said after a long time.At the beginning, Imaizumi was a little hesitant, always afraid that what he said would be laughed at by the other party.Later, when he found that his words aroused Shimoda's interest, he strengthened his confidence. "This is the photo in question! It really looks like a gun." Shimoda carefully looked at the photo brought by Imaizumi. "I think it's definitely a gun." "You can't be preconceived. By the way, could it be because of some malfunction that your camera only took a picture of one person?" "Although I dare not say that there is absolutely no, it is too rare that one is photographed and the other is not photographed. If two people walk at the same time and are induced together, they should be photographed on the same negative. Even if Even if they walked separately, they should be photographed separately. The reality is that both of them were photographed when they went up the mountain." "Could it be that the camera or sensing device failed at that time?" “The camera has a timing mechanism that keeps track of the date it was taken. I also took pictures of rabbits and squirrels when I checked the film every three or four days after the person was photographed. There was no way the person could have photographed the animal afterward. And I checked the timing mechanism to make sure the camera was fine." "The camera works normally, and there is no fork..." Shimoda's eyes gradually brightened. "How about it, can you find a way to negotiate and search the road section between A and B points where the camera is placed? I am really worried." "Hearing what you said, I'm also very tempted. There are a lot of people whose whereabouts are unknown recently. They are likely to be the victims of the murder. After the murder, the body is either buried or thrown into the sea, so I don't know. Was it killed? The discovery of the victim’s body is the most critical evidence for prosecuting the perpetrator. But the discovery of the body is often very accidental.” "That's all the more reason to do it. With your strength, search it!" "Things are not as simple as you think. First of all, the location is in the mountains of Okuchibu, which is not under our jurisdiction. It is even more difficult to open your mouth through other prefectural police." "Isn't the police a whole?" "In principle, that's the case, but the police in the prefectures have a strong sense of controlling each section." "Can't you think of a way? Use your power." "I'm just an ordinary criminal police officer. The area where you put the camera is under the jurisdiction of the Saitama Prefecture Police. It's not that there are no acquaintances there, I can talk about it." Shimoda said uncertainly.I don't know what path he took, and the search for the shooting location began on April 19, shortly after their conversation.Under the leadership of Imaizumi, a joint search team composed of members of the district police station and local firefighters searched the mountainside area between Longdong Valley and Sanfeng Mountain at an altitude of 1200-1300 meters. First of all, the search area was set between point A and point B, and the focus was on looking for signs of recent excavation and traces of dragging things along the animal path.This area is composed of beech, maple, etc. broad-leaved forests, mixed with Japanese hemlock, swamps, eternal springs, etc., so it seems the most reasonable way is to bury the body in the ground. The search teams searched the places where the bodies might be buried at intervals of 2 meters. Normally, such a search team would not be dispatched at all, no, probably the search operation itself would not be possible, but at that time, the number of vicious homicide cases increased sharply, and corpses were often dismembered and hidden. For those who may become victims, the Police Agency decided to implement the "Enhanced Search Month" campaign and decided to mobilize all forces to conduct a concentrated search.This month coincides with "Intensive Month". "Is there really a dead person buried in this place?" "Maybe it was eaten by a bear!" "Being eaten by a bear, that fellow traveler must go to the police." "That person probably didn't pass in front of the camera for some reason?" "What do you mean by why?" "How could I know that kind of thing!" Although everyone muttered like this, they still searched the grass in the shade under the tree very seriously.Just when everyone was feeling very tired, someone found a short boot under a tree 50 meters below point B, which was for the right foot.The atmosphere suddenly became tense.Judging from Imaizumi's photo, the shoe was worn by the person walking in front, and it was a size 25.Unexpected events set everyone on edge. The short boots probably fell off during the hiding of the body, perhaps when the people behind were chasing with guns, they tripped and fell off under their feet.In either case, no one would throw their boots here and go downhill.This is more evidence that the body is nearby. People who had been dubious just now were now confidently focusing on the place where the boots were found.After about half an hour, a police officer suddenly shouted. "Did you find it?" Everyone became nervous again. "Although the ground was covered with last year's fallen leaves, it was soft, as if it had been dug recently." "Judging from the fact that there is no uplift on the ground, it is likely that the excess soil was thrown elsewhere for fear of being discovered." "If that's the case, this guy is also very cautious in this deep mountain." Several shovels dug vigorously together.Bursts of rancid stench came out from the soil, no doubt there must be some "animal" corpse buried underneath. "Be careful! Dig it out quickly." The search leader reminded loudly, fearing that the shovel would damage the corpse.The stench was getting worse and worse. At this time, everyone threw away the shovels and picked them up with their hands. "It seems to be here!" a man shouted.So everyone gathered in that place and continued to pick it up. "Hey, what is this?" a man shouted strangely, the dark brown fur was exposed in the dug-up soil. "It's a wild boar. It's a wild boar that was buried!" The more you dig down, the more the outline of the wild boar is revealed. "It took me a long time to dig out such a thing!" At first, everyone thought that a human body would be dug up, but it turned out to be a wild boar, and they were very disappointed. Buried in the soil was a Japanese male wild boar with a length of 1.4 meters and a weight of about 180 kilograms.Among Japanese wild boars, this is the biggest guy.Judging from the corpse, the wild boar was shot from the front by iron sand at close range, and the face, shoulder, and chest of the pig were severely bullet wounded.Imaizumi recognized from the pig's physical features that it was the same pig that was photographed by the camera. "There is such a troublemaker, who did it!" Just as the search team members were muttering and burying the soil back, the captain suddenly said: "Wait, if it was a hunter, it would never be buried here." kind of place." "Who would hit it..." The people looking at each other suddenly seemed to understand what the captain didn't say. "Dig further down and look." The wild boar's body was dragged out. "Yes!" Everyone yelled in unison.Buried beneath the wild boar was the body of a male covered in mud.The body of the dead body was naked, with its face facing upwards, its two feet were forcibly twisted, the toenails pointed to the ground, and its hands were stretched vertically along the body. Externally, the body showed no signs of being shot, with blunt force wounds on the left side of the face and the left side of the head.This may have been the immediate cause of death. Judging from the above situation, the criminal may have been attacked by a wild boar when committing the crime.After the wild boar was killed, it was buried in the soil together with the victim's body.The unexpected became reality. An urgent report of the discovery of the body was immediately reported to the Police Department and the County Police Headquarters.Since the scene was in Mount Oku-Chichibu and it was too late, the autopsy was scheduled for the next day, April 20.According to the test results, it is inferred that the deceased was murdered 6 months to 1 year ago, and this period of time happened to be within the date when Imaizumi took the photo.The boar buried with the dead body was never seen again. The age of the deceased is estimated to be between 30 and 35 years old. Because it was buried in the soil, the degree of decomposition of the body is not serious. The deceased was muscular, with traces of cecal surgery on his lower right abdomen, a bald spot the size of a 100-yen coin on the left side of his head, a knife-like wound on the base of the nail on the middle finger of his right hand, and burns on the inside of his left calf. The head of the corpse was like a sharp sculpture, with eyes and eyebrows almost touching, a pointed nose, thin lips, and a sharp and cruel appearance. The corpse had contusions on the left forehead and head, a collapsed fracture of the left skull, and injuries to both hands and forearms. No trauma was found in other parts.The deceased was naked, probably because the criminal took away everything that could prove the identity of the deceased after committing the crime. A site inspection was carried out before the autopsy began.Centering on the corpse, gradually narrowing the scope from the periphery, and then proceeding to the autopsy.The results of the investigation did not find any items left by the criminals or sufficient to identify the criminals.The only thing left is the right shoe believed to be worn by the deceased, which was found near the body site.Just to be on the safe side, the police tried to put the shoe on the deceased's foot, and it was just the right size. It is preliminarily speculated that the victim stumbled and dropped his shoes when the criminal pointed a gun at him to walk. He was dying anyway, so what do you want shoes for?Under the repeated urging of the criminals, the shoes were thrown there. Shoes are finished shoes made of artificial leather.The criminal stripped everything from the victim except the shoe.Did he not find the shoe, or did he think that it was sold everywhere in the market, so he didn't have to worry about showing his feet?Anyway, one shoe remained at the scene. The soles are not worn much.Nowadays, many people take cars when they go out. Is it because they often take cars that their shoes are new?It's hard to tell for a while. After the autopsy, the body was brought out because an autopsy still needed to be done.Dead pigs were also kept as "evidence".This wild boar may be the only "witness" to the crime. An autopsy carried out the next day proved the autopsy's inference on the time of the victim's death to be correct, and showed that the victim still had a breath of life before being buried in the ground. It is generally believed that the criminal used a blunt weapon such as a club, or he may have hit the victim's forehead and the left side of the head several times with the butt of a gun, and the fatal blow caused the victim's skull to collapse due to fractures.This blow alone was enough to bury the dead in the ground without any resistance. Did the criminal think the victim was dead before burying it?Or did he deliberately bury him in the soil to kill him knowing that he hadn't died yet?No one will ever know. At the same time as the autopsy, the wild boar was also inspected, and several deformed iron sands and incomplete top fire contained in the bullet casing were found from the head, chest, and shoulders of the pig. The scene of the crime deduced from the results of the autopsy and autopsy is reproduced as follows: the criminal walked to the scene with a gun through the victim, and slammed the victim's head with the butt of the gun. After killing him, or when he was about to kill him, suddenly Attacked by a wild boar, he shot the wild boar and buried it with the victim. "Then why did you only shoot the wild boar and kill the victim with the butt of a gun?" someone raised a new question. "It may have been intended to shoot and kill the victim, but at this time the wild boar rushed over, so I had to shoot and kill the wild boar first, but the ammunition in the chamber was used up, and it would be troublesome to reload." Kill the victim later.” The ammunition used in the shotgun is iron sand, and several iron sand bullets can be loaded in the barrel to increase the hit rate.According to the deduction just now, the gun was probably a single-shot shotgun. The only clue left at the scene was the right shoe, which was a product of "Chicago Shoe Factory", a major shoe factory in Taito District, Tokyo.After contacting the factory, I checked the design number printed on the upper of the shoe with the number of the wooden last used, and found out that this shoe was sold in March last year, and as many as 5,000 pairs had been sold on the market. According to the manufacturer, that kind of shoes is the most popular type, catching up with the trend of fashion changes, and it is still selling well.Because it is sold nationwide, it is impossible to find out the store and buyer of this shoe. From the clue of the shoe, it seemed that there was no hope. Therefore, according to the characteristics of the victim, I checked the files of wanted criminals, runaways, and people with criminal experience in the "Crime Information Management System" of the Police Agency, but there was no one who matched the characteristics.Ascertaining the identity of the victim became the core issue of the search.On the one hand, the police authorities released the retouched photos of the victims through newspapers, television, and magazines; Posted widely for widespread assistance, but got no response.The search for a hidden murder case, which began with the accidental discovery of an animal sensor, hit a wall from the start. But the search team still followed this weak clue, and Imaizumi's camera captured the shoes worn by both the murderer and the victim at the same time.The one left at the scene was probably the victim's, and the shoes worn by the murderer were also photographed.So the police enlarged the photos taken by Imaizumi, and asked experts to identify the shoes from the design, shape, shoe-making materials and exterior decoration.It turned out that the shoes worn by the murderer were products of the royal shoe store, a high-end gentleman's shoe store in Ginza. After sending the photos to the Royal Shoe Store, the factory said that it was impossible to determine what kind of shoes it was from the photos, but it is certain that this is the joint promotion of "shoe leather with custom-made coupons" by the factory and various stores since last year. Customer-made shoes. "Can you find out who made the order?" The investigator asked very excitedly.Because if it is made to order, you can definitely find out the name and address of the orderer, and the number of orders is limited. "Of course I can find it. The product on the photo is made by us in the name of 'Royal Premium Coupon', using the highest grade shoe leather, and it is customized according to the customer's request. The quantity is limited." "Can we see the customer's order?" "Then... what..." "It's related to the murder case." Hearing what the investigators said, the staff of the royal shoe store changed their expressions in fright.The order form provided by the factory contained the names and addresses of 78 people. "In your royal shoe factory, how many customers order shoes?" "Yes, but the number of people who bought shoes was 92." "Why are there different numbers?" "Because some of the customers who held gift coupons did not come to order." "Ah! Who didn't come to order such an expensive gift coupon?!" "Yes. Some may come after several years, and some may not come at all. They must have completely forgotten about the gift coupons." "There are really such extravagant and wasteful people in the world. Please tell us those who come to order shoes before September 18." The date of the deceased's murder calculated from the autopsy, and the date the camera was taken?It can be concluded that the date of committing the crime was September 18 last year, and those who came to order after that can be excluded.This leaves only 26 people.All that remains is to conduct a thorough investigation of each of these individuals.The investigation team finally had a clear goal. 26 people have to be eliminated one by one.Every time someone is excluded, it means that the net has narrowed a bit, and at the same time, there is also concern about whether the criminal has slipped through the net. In this way, Nonomiya Chengo was left at the end of the review.Nonomiya's title is the first secretary of the right-wing big man Takazo Kaibe.When the name Nonomiya Chengo appeared on the order, the investigation team couldn't help but feel secretly moved, but in order to prevent preconceived prejudice, they started with the other people who were sorted out first.But in the end, Nonomiya Chengao was the only one left, and he became the main object of suspicion. Nonomiya's immediate boss, Kaibu Takazo, led the military's secret espionage organization to be active in mainland China during the war of aggression against China. After the war, he was thrown into prison for a period of time as a war criminal, but was released soon after.As soon as he came out, he reactivated himself as a businessman with political backing.His miraculous comeback is rumored to have taken advantage of the chaos at the end of the war to seize the army's precious metals for himself.In any case, he uses his abundant funds as a weapon to strengthen his relationship with the Democratic Friendship Party, and constantly strengthen his secret power, so that people call him the president behind the Democratic Friendship Party.In addition, he is also the leader of a faction in the right-wing patriotic group, and has ties to the domestic violence group and the general house.His network involves right-wing forces, the government, official circles, financial circles, literary and artistic circles, sports stars, and violent gangs. His sphere of influence covers the whole of Japan, and there is no place he can't reach.The Haibu was related to almost all unjust prison incidents after the war.Many people died because of him, but he not only survived without any damage, but also used the ignorant money he extracted to make himself fatter and fatter. It can be said that he is the manipulator among Japan's behind-the-scenes manipulators, and there is always a bloody smell and a suspicious and mysterious mist around him. And the backstage manipulating Haibu secretly is Nonomiya, that is to say, Nonomiya is "the manipulator among the manipulators behind the scenes". Investigators managed to find him when he had just returned home. If Nonomiya is really the murderer, then he is most likely wearing the shoes in the photo, because he never thought that his shoes would be photographed.Most likely he's wearing those shoes right now.If the shoe had been disposed of, then everything would be over.