Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven: The Blue Route to the South

According to the hotel's accommodation registration card, it shows that Hashimoto checked into the New Tokyo Hotel at 11:24 noon, so he committed the crime after that. In order to avoid the eyes of the police, the murderer went north from Tokyo or made a detour and then went south to Fukuoka. ——Under this scenario, the police investigated northbound flights of Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, and Japan Domestic Airlines.Among them, Hashimoto is most likely to take the flights of All Nippon Airways and Japanese domestic airlines with flights to Sendai, Morioka, Akita and other local cities.

The investigation started with the routes of these airlines.However, no suspicious person appeared despite a thorough investigation of the northward flight of the three companies.Therefore, the police adopted the idea of ​​combining cars and trains proposed by Detective Uematsu, so the investigation proceeded to the passengers coming from Nagoya and Niigata airports, which are closer to Tokyo. However, the result is still nothing.No trace of Hashimoto going to Fukuoka was found, no matter which route or airport he might have used.There are only traces of returning to Tokyo but no clues of going to Fukuoka.Even if he could prove his method of returning to Tokyo from Fukuoka within five hours, as long as he did not discover and prove his method of reaching the murder scene within the remaining six and a half hours, Hashimoto's alibi would still be unshakable.

"It's simply 203 Heights!" Detective Uchida said metaphorically. "But it was captured in the end. There should be a breakthrough somewhere!" Hiraga managed to figure out that it was the Russian fortress in the Russo-Japanese War, so he said so.In the past few days, he has been running around busy investigating, his cheeks are haggard and dark, only his eyes are still shining.All the police officers were exhausted, and Hiraga's persistence in tracking down the murderer was extraordinary, and now that persistence seemed to condense white flames in his eyes. "Yes! However, it is not easy to find a breakthrough."

The old detective seems to be pouring cold water on the young detective. Hiraga hasn't returned to her house for a long time.That night, he went home to pick up the mail and a change of clothes.In the subway, advertisements posted in weekly magazines exaggerated the international romance between a woman who started as a waitress and became the second wife of the president of a Southeast Asian country, and a certain movie star.The wife separated from her husband after the fall of the president. She is a woman who travels around the world and keeps having romantic affairs. The title of "London-New York-Paris, Mrs. XX's Tracking Report" is very eye-catching.

——What a time of peace and prosperity! —— Hiraga focused on the news from another world completely different from his eager pursuit of the murderer. "London-New York? As long as you have money, you can go anywhere and do anything!" Hiraga murmured absently.The radio in the car began to broadcast the station name of Hiraga's place of residence, which was far from the impression he suddenly had of a beautiful foreign city. No trace was found on the route of the civil aircraft, so the only remaining possibility is to consider the special plane of military aircraft or civilian aircraft that the Uematsu criminal police said in the letter as "unrealistic".

No matter how unrealistic it is, if there is such a possibility, it is still necessary to investigate. Speaking of military bases in the suburbs of Tokyo, there are Tachikawa and Yokota.Among them, after Yokota became the special landing airport for B-52 large aircraft, all models below medium-sized aircraft took off and landed in Tachikawa. There are almost no fighter jets in Japan. It is said that they are military bases, and they all fly from the mainland of the United States to Okinawa, a transit station or a military base in Vietnam. In terms of transporting troops and military supplies, more than a dozen U.S. civil airlines, including Pan Am, Flying Tiger, Northwest, and World Airlines, have concluded entrustment contracts with the U.S. military.

As a result of their investigation, Pinghe learned that it is completely impossible for ordinary people in Japan to take these planes. When transporting soldiers and supplies, it was originally under the strict management of the US military. In order to protect military secrets, it is absolutely impossible for people except those with special permission from the army to ride.Fukuoka originally opened some military bases to civilian airlines, so it did not affect the landing of military aircraft. However, as a backup airport, it is only used when aircraft taking off from Yokota and Tachikawa cannot land at the target airport due to weather conditions and other reasons. rarely use.

On October 1, not a single military aircraft landed in Fukuoka, let alone under weather conditions that prevented flight.Moreover, none of the Japanese had obtained permission from the military to board the plane that day. It is said that the military aircraft with such strict management, the transportation contract signed with the army is only a one-way trip to Fukuoka, and the empty plane after unloading soldiers and supplies at the destination can also take people if the airline agrees. However, Hashimoto's whereabouts back to Tokyo have been found out, even if he can take a military plane on the way back to Tokyo, it is meaningless.

The last remaining possibility is only a special plane for civilian aircraft. The police first investigated through the Ministry of Transportation whether anyone submitted a flight plan from Tokyo to Fukuoka to the air traffic management agency on October 1. The altitude above 200 meters from the ground and water surface is called "air traffic control area", and the airport designated by the Minister of Transport and the airspace near the airport are called "air traffic control circle".According to regulations, when an aircraft flies in these two airspaces, it must submit a flight plan to the Minister of Transport and obtain approval.

At the same time, when the aircraft finishes flying as planned, it must also undertake the obligation to report immediately. However, there was no instance of such a plan being submitted nor endorsed that day. On October 1st, the whole country of Japan was clear and clear in autumn, and it was in a weather state that could fly with a view, so no one submitted a flight plan, but checked all the airline companies in Tokyo and nearby neighboring counties, and no one contracted out what Hashimoto needed that day. That special plane.And they also went through all the aviation logs that are legally obliged to file, and there are no such flight records.

In order to be cautious, the police also checked the airports and navigation towers near Tokyo and Fukuoka, and learned that there was neither a suspicious plane landing nor a landing permit. The remote possibility that Uematsu mentioned was completely ruled out in this way.The detectives returned to the search headquarters with tired and gloomy expressions, and the melody of "Christmas Night" wafted in their ears.I was busy investigating but didn't find out that it was Christmas Eve tonight. Usually listening to "Christmas Eve" can always calm the mind, but this night suddenly aroused the anxiety of the criminal police. Hiraga remembered the Christmas card from Hashimoto.At this time tonight, in the most magnificent Tokyo Royal Hotel in the East, a man and a woman who enjoy wealth and leisure may be celebrating "Christmas". Hashimoto must also be one of them, with a cheerful expression shuttling among the high society crowd. Feelings of fatigue and defeat rippling through Hiraga's body like ink. "However, why did the murderer choose Fukuoka?" Despite feeling hopelessly defeated, the doubts he harbored before revived in Hiraga's heart.Since then, I have been busy investigating and even forgot, but now all the tracking clues have been cut off, and the doubts that have settled deep in my consciousness have raised their heads again. It is now known that the murderer did not use Kitakyushu Airport, which shows that Fukuoka has another charm besides this.The southbound flight to Miyazaki is indeed one of the charms, but as a transit point for switching local lines, it is not a privilege unique to Fukuoka. Both Osaka and Sapporo can operate in the same way as Fukuoka. Hiraga wants to thoroughly investigate the charm of Fukuoka at this time, and besides, there is no other clue at the moment. The reason why the murderer chose Fukuoka, anyway, is the convenience of transportation.Only Fukuoka was worth transporting him from Tokyo in five or six hours.Second, there is no doubt that they are familiar with the local conditions.When committing a crime, knowing the local conditions or not makes a big difference to the murderer's safety.Not only is it a crime scene, but if you are familiar with all the surrounding environmental conditions, you can make a careful plan with a high success rate and easy escape.The third is whether there are any acquaintances in Fukuoka, or very few acquaintances.Committing a crime where no one knows you can cut off all ties with the murderer. The second and third reasons seem to be contradictory, but they can be resolved after the murderer has studied the land beforehand. However, the second and third are not necessarily Fukuoka. The reason why the murderer chose Fukuoka seems to be the traffic reason cited in the first example. Hiraga listed all the means of transportation in and out of Fukuoka. 1. Aircraft Japan Airlines southbound flight northbound flight (including Okinawa flight) All Nippon Airways Tokyo-Fukuoka Line All Nippon Airways Osaka-Oita Line East Asia Airlines Kagoshima Line Two, the train Kagoshima Main Line Chikuhi Line West Japan Railway 3. Ship Kyushu Yusen Hiraga wrote here, in order to find the route of this ship, he opened the whole map of Kyushu.The first thing you see is not the red route, but the aviation route drawn with blue lines. For this guy, let me work so hard! ——Hiraga's eyes accidentally fell on the blue line, but he suddenly fixed his eyes, as if he found something strange.He found a blue line starting from Fukuoka, not passing through Kagoshima, Miyazaki, and Oita, but extending directly to the southern ocean.Is it the Okinawa line?No!The Okinawa Line diverges to the right. Where does this line go? ——Because it is the blue line, it must be an aviation route, but this route is not on the flight schedule. "Military aircraft rarely land in Fukuoka except as a temporary airport." At this time, what the military personnel at the Yokota Base said when investigating whether the murderer was on a military plane revived in his memory. If Banfu Airport is a temporary airport, where is the original airport?I used to think it was an alternate airport for Yokota and Tachikawa, but depending on the weather conditions, isn’t it sometimes used as an alternate airport for other airports? Hiraga expanded the map from all of Japan to the Southeast Asian portion of the world map, retracing where the blue line went.Unexpectedly, its whereabouts were—— "Taipei!" Hiraga's field of vision suddenly widened.Hiraga has not traveled abroad so far, the sadness of a low-paid detective.It is likely that none of the detectives in the Murakawa squad have ever gone out. Recently, the phenomenon of cross-regional crimes has become more and more serious, and a large number of international crimes across the world have occurred.As a countermeasure, the international criminal police was organized, and countries cooperated in the arrest and extradition of international criminals. Detectives sometimes go on business trips to pick up criminals who have fled abroad, but Hiraga has never been there.This restricted the eyes of the police officers, including him, to the country. Fukuoka has international flights!But is that even possible?After the murderer left Tokyo, it took only eleven and a half hours to fly to Fukuoka via Taipei to commit the murder, and then returned to Tokyo.This is unimaginable for people who live an ordinary life in Japan. The advertisement that he saw in the subway car a few days ago revived in Hiraga's mind. When he saw "London-New York-Paris", a weekly advertisement that portrayed Mrs. XX's international romance, he once thought that as long as he had money, he could go anywhere.Why didn't you notice it then? The development of airplanes has been so rapid that the world has become noticeably narrower. With the peaceful use of rockets in modern society, the distance between Tokyo and New York can be reached in eighteen minutes.The moving time between the sense of distance and the real distance loses the sense of balance. Going to Europe and America may be faster than going to Kagoshima and Sapporo. The blind spot is international routes.Hiraga felt tremors all over his body, this was the excitement of a fighter who had tracked down the murderer. Fukuoka is different from other local airports in that it can take international flights. Osaka also has international flights, but because of the Shinkansen, the time difference with the plane is very small, and it is difficult to forge an alibi.Fukuoka also has Korean Air flights from Seoul.If it is Seoul, the distance is closer than Taipei. Pinghe immediately investigated Korean Air, and learned that they were irregular flights, and there was no flight on October 1, so he excluded it from the investigation object. The next thing to focus on, of course, is the route from Taipei.The route was operated by Cathay Pacific, and Hiraga called the airline's information desk. "Your company's plane is going from Taipei to Fukuoka. Can you tell me the time when Taipei takes off and arrives in Fukuoka on October 1?" "That's flight 86, the time remains the same. It operates twice a week, with two flights, on Wednesday and Friday..." Listening to the answer from the staff at the airline's information desk, Hiraga felt his blood boil. October 1st was Wednesday. "Flight 86 on Wednesday departs from Taipei at 12:35 local time and arrives in Fukuoka at 15:25. The time difference at this time can be ignored." 15:25!It was only two hours and fifteen minutes before the murderer took East Asia Airlines Flight 365 that took off at 17:40 after the murder. What a "charm" this time!During this time, the murderer can travel to and from the airport and the city, have sex with the victim, and lure the victim to take poison and escape.That's not enough time, but it's by no means impossible. Hiraga analyzed the two hours and fifteen minutes of content. Immigration formalities: 20 minutes From the airport to the city: 20 minutes Jump out of the taxi to the victim's room: three to five minutes. Make love: ten to fifteen minutes. The murderer must book a ticket with East Asia Airlines before 17:20.If it takes twenty minutes to get to the airport and five minutes to hail a taxi from the victim's room, then he must leave the victim at 16:55. This is very consistent with the estimated time of the victim's death and the condition of the body.If 16:55 is set as the murderer's last time, and the murderer completes the above-mentioned "various procedures" from 15:20 to 16:20 an hour later, there will be about 30 deaths by the "last time". minutes of "free time".This period of time may be sufficient to carry out the murder. As long as the flight was delayed by no more than an hour, there was a possibility that the murderer and the victim would come into contact.Hiraga aimed at that possibility. "Friday's plane..." The person at the information desk continued talking, but Hiraga interrupted him. "Friday needs no introduction. Is there any flight from Tokyo (before 12:35) to Taipei on Wednesday?" "Our company has flight 577, which departs from Haneda at 9 am and arrives in Taipei at 12:20." "That's right!" Pinghe couldn't help shouting. "what?" The other party was quite surprised.Pinghe asked without waiting for the other party to speak: "Arrive in Taipei on flight 577, and transfer to flight 86 to return to Japan immediately, okay?" "What did you say?" The people at the information desk were astonished.It seems that he is used to receiving international tourists, and this is the first time he has received such a strange interrogation.Is it true that there are tourists who pay expensive air fares to go to foreign countries, do nothing or visit any place, and return home at the airport?But such a strange visitor should have one. "That is impossible!" The person at the information desk said decisively in an unquestionable tone. "Fifteen minutes is impossible. You know, the booking process for international flights is an hour before departure. Unlike domestic routes, the principle of international flights is to wait until passengers board the plane, but even so, waiting for fifteen minutes is No. First of all, it takes time to get off the plane, the seat is far from the exit, and if you dawdle behind the group tourists, go through the immigration and customs formalities, and an hour will pass in a while.” It seemed that the competition was fierce, and the people at the information desk responded patiently to Hiraga's unreasonable questions.However, no matter how gentle the tone was, Hiraga's disappointment was irreversible.Just because I was ecstatic when I found out about Flight 86, the disappointment is even heavier now, as if the blood flowing all over my body froze all of a sudden. "Is it not possible at all?" "yes." "Is the immigration procedure in Taipei very troublesome?" Although extremely frustrated by the inextricable disappointment, Hiraga desperately grasped the tiny possibility given by fifteen minutes. If it's a train, fifteen minutes is enough to transfer.I don't know much about the situation in Taipei. Is there any trail? However, the answer at the information desk made him even more depressed. "It's very troublesome there! No matter how short the stay in the country is, you need a visa." "Just like not going out on the station platform, what if you don't go out at the airport?" "However, this is still entering the country! Group tourists need to negotiate with the airline and the immigration management office for transit, and wait in the departure lounge. In addition, all guests must pass CIQ." The so-called "C" is customs; "I" is entry-exit management; "Q" is quarantine, which is the "checkpoint" for international tourists.Hiraga also knew about these situations. "Anyway, absolutely not." The person at the information desk said ruthlessly. "Do other companies have flights that arrive in Taipei earlier than your company's flight 577?" Pinghe was extremely disappointed and discovered another possibility. "I don't know anything about other companies." The other party suddenly became very indifferent, this is a snobbish person, Hiraga thanked him and hung up the phone.Subsequent investigations cannot be resolved by making phone calls.