Chapter 6 Chapter Six Returning to the Soul

The first investigative meeting decided that in the future, the focus of the search will be on the victim's heterosexual relationship, and the clue is the business card left in the victim's hand. The business card owners who were interviewed and questioned were shocked, and almost all the men denied any relationship with the victim.Most of their excuses are: "I don't remember giving this kind of woman a business card. My business card is given to many people every day, and there must be some bad intentions among them." There are also very few people who have admitted to having a relationship with her.

"She asked me for a business card, and I gave it to her without thinking. I haven't received a call from her since then. I was invited by a friend to a tryst club, and I only met her on a whim. Only once. Forgot her name, too." This type of answer is similar, not saying "invited by a friend", or "knowing it from hearsay". There are also several "regular guests", and their answers are exactly the same: "She doesn't have the look of a call girl, she is a pure and gentle girl. She only talks about her hometown in the valley of Xinzhou, and doesn't want to talk about it; she says that if her parents know that she lives in Tokyo like this, they will definitely drive her away. I went out of the house; I also said that I felt very happy when I started to do it for the first time, and I was not bound by anyone or any conditions, so I did it.”

Based on the narrations of several guests, her experience has a rough outline: After graduating from a rural school, she worked in a restaurant near a small town for a while, but she found it boring, so she defected to a fellow villager in Tokyo.However, the old man moved.Just when she had nowhere to go, a man stopped her.Because she had no place to stay that night, she followed the man to the hotel, and the man returned her money. With this experience, she started looking for men on the street, unwittingly came to a tryst club, and settled there. Her extremely optimistic character, which doesn't think deeply about life, determines that she joins the ranks of prostitution without any scruples.It seems that she has no plans to save money to open a shop.

She associates with different men every night, and the free city life makes her very happy.The men are very kind to her, besides the tryst fees, they also buy her clothes and give her gifts, some even entertain her and take her to interesting places.Although she has no awareness of saving money, she has saved nearly 10 million yen.This fact shows that she is indeed a big hit.Many accessories and clothes that fill the wardrobe are also gifts from the guests! Giving a call girl a gift also involves an emotion that transcends the relationship between the guest and the prostitute. She often "travels" with regular guests, but among her identified business partners, there is no photographer who took the photo at an unknown location.The clearer the outline of the victim's character becomes, the more indistinct the motive for killing her becomes.Judging from the character of the victim, there is really no reason to provoke resentment from others.In other respects, the basis for complex homicide motives was not found.

However, the murderer came after the victim.Pretend to be in love, lure her to the hotel, and then kill her when she sees the opportunity.Among the cash held by the victim, did the prisoner hand it over?This is not yet clear. According to the guest's testimony, the victim never took the initiative to ask for payment in advance.It is said that some customers delivered in advance, and some customers delivered afterwards. If the prisoner delivered it in advance (before the crime), the cash held by the victim may contain the criminal's banknotes.Therefore, the police conducted a fingerprint test on the cash (five 10,000 yen banknotes) held by the victim. Of course, many unspecified fingerprints overlapped with each other, and no real fingerprint samples for comparison were taken.

If it is not an impulsive crime, then, for the prisoner, the victim's life in the world will have a disadvantageous side to him.Is there a certain aspect of the call girl's life that must take the risk of breaking the law and systematically take her life away? The owners of the 72 business cards were all checked, but almost all of them had alibi certificates. Even if a few of them could not confirm their alibi, they had no motive for committing the crime.Nor did they find any reason to kill a call girl who had only had a one-night acquaintance. "Not all of the victim's guests gave her a business card. It should be said that most of them did not give her a business card. Maybe the murderer was among those people." Someone raised such an opinion.

"However, she has to receive two or three guests a night, and sometimes five or six guests. Where can we find them?" "It seems that the murderer is familiar with the victim, because it is impossible for a guest who meets by chance to call her out." "If the prisoner is a customer, then he must be a regular customer. However, in addition to the owner of the business card, we also checked the other regular customers of the victim based on the information provided by the store, and found no doubts. Therefore, it is possible The murderer is not on the line of the guest." Someone put forward a new point of view from a new angle.

"If it's not a guest, who can it be?" "It is necessary to investigate the man she befriended before coming to Tokyo." "Her father said that she had no close man before coming to Tokyo." "It's also possible that she made friends in a place where her father didn't know!" "Her father said that in the countryside, it is difficult to hide the relationship between men and women." "The traffic is so convenient now! She can take the man's car and go to the motel for a tryst, and she can completely hide it without anyone noticing it!"

"The victim has been in Tokyo for three years. Assuming that the prisoner has been with her since before she arrived in Tokyo three years ago, can she endure such a long time? Could it be revenge?" In any case, the victim and the prisoner can go to the hotel together.Even call girls have the right to choose their guests.Judging from the fact that the victim took the shower before the murderer took the shower, and the two were able to lie naked on the bed calmly, it seems that the victim and the murderer were very close. "In a sense, it can be considered that the prisoner and the victim are very close, but this level of intimacy has not reached the point where they can have a personal relationship. Why do you say that? Because the murderer is going to the store to call, if there is a personal relationship, he It is absolutely possible to call the victim’s home. That is to say, the prisoner does not know the phone number of the victim’s home. In short, the degree of intimacy is not that deep.”

"It's not necessarily the murderer who called the store. Maybe she met the murderer after receiving the man who called." "So, the murderer was not very close to the victim. Because of this, he dared to kill her calmly in the hotel." "Calmly?" "If there is a personal relationship, there may be clues left in the victim's home. The crime was committed outside her home because the killer was sure that no trace would be left." "So, the owner of the business card is not a prisoner?" "Although I don't dare to make a complete conclusion, I can imagine that if the owner of the business card is the murderer, he might get the business card back!"

"The murderer may be neither a random guest nor a man with a personal relationship, but a 'neutral man' between the two." "Is this neutral man from her hometown?" There were different opinions at the meeting, but finally the following three points were decided as the focus of the investigation: 1. Search for guests other than business cards; 2. Investigate the communication relationship between the victim and other guests, especially those related to the custom industry; 3. Investigate the life history of the victim before coming to Tokyo. As soon as Oxtail came home that night, Chengzhi came forward excitedly.Since going to Shinjuku Station for a walk every day, her expression is not so depressed, so Ushio also loosens her frown—if things go on like this, there is no need to worry about her committing suicide. "Did you go to Shinjuku Station again today?" Ushio asked his wife who was helping to change clothes. "Go." "When we are free, let's travel to Xinzhou together!" Shinichi's whereabouts are unknown, but he himself said that he went to the Shinshu area.Although it is not certain that he departed from Shinjuku Station, judging from his memorization of the names of the stations on the Chuo Line, it is most likely that he departed from Shinjuku Station. "What a pleasure! When are you going?" asked the wife.However, Ushio's professional nature does not allow him to agree on a specific time with his wife. "After the case in hand is over, I think I can take a breath!" "You mean the murder of the call girl?" "Ok." "The murderer hasn't been found yet?" "This is a very cunning guy!" "Why must the poor girl be killed?" The two sat opposite each other at the kang table in the dining room, and the wife made a cup of tea for her husband. "Of course, killing anyone is not allowed, but I think it is even more abhorrent to kill people who live at the bottom of society!" "There used to be a case of killing a homeless man!" "It's a prank made by middle school students." "Could it be possible to kill people with a prank?" "Mostly they're sick of killing people on TV and in video games." "This call girl was also killed by such a prankster?" "What?" Oxtail stopped the teacup in mid-air. "As a prank murder target, isn't a call girl very suitable? You can easily take her to the hotel, and no one suspects her when she escapes. I heard that big men are keen on war games and survival games. When playing games is not enjoyable , I want to kill real people!" "You're overthinking it a bit. Games are games after all. As a pastime for educated adults, it's just for fun. This is the same as tasting homicide cases in mystery novels." "Yeah, it's bad if the entertainer wants to get serious. Should I take a bath first or eat first today?" Oxtail usually decides the order of bathing and eating according to the degree of hunger. "I want to take a bath and eat at the same time." "Of order." His wife replied amusedly.Compared with the previous stage, she is much more carefree.Niuwei thought to himself: No matter what, I have to take her out for a trip recently. After sleeping, Oxtail was awakened by his wife's cry.When he opened his eyes, his wife beside him had already sat up.The clock next to the pillow shows: it is 3 o'clock in the morning. "What's the matter?" Oxtail asked. "Shen Yi, Shen Yi!" His wife shouted in a trembling voice. "What's the matter Shinichi?" "Shenyi is back!" "Shinichi? You are dreaming!" "It's not a dream, he's really back! Standing there with his whole body wet." "There's no one in the house!" Beside the pillow that the wife pointed to, there was only a desk lamp with the "weak" button pressed, and the weak light was dim. "He's really here! Look, it's wet here." "Really?" Ushio dubiously touched the tatami mat his wife was pointing at, and suddenly turned pale with shock.Indeed, as my wife said, the corner of the tatami was wet. "Probably because the glass has been poured over!" The water glass was lying sideways beside the kettle beside the pillow.The leftover water was spilled and the tatami mats were wet! "No, it's not the water in the cup. There was no water in that cup. It's the water dripping from Shen Yi's body!" The wife insisted on her own opinion and pressed her face on the wet tatami.Let the wife think like that!However, the sight of his wife lying on the tatami and chasing after her son who has not returned is horrible.Could it be that Shen Yi returned to his mother's pillow to tell something? Ushio has a premonition that Shinichi will come back soon—with his return, the last glimmer of hope will be terminated and replaced by ominous clouds.