Chapter 19 third quarter

That night, Tashiro returned to the apartment and lay down to sleep.He fell into a deep sleep from the fatigue of the journey and the pursuit of the young woman around Shinjuku at night. The more tired Tashiro was, the easier it was for Tashiro to dream. He dreamed that he was chasing a woman in a green suit on the road again.That road seems to be in Shinjuku, and it seems to be in Ginza.Through the streets and alleys, Tashiro pursued the woman in the crowd. Usually his dreams are colorless, but in today's dream the green suit looked particularly bright and eye-catching amidst the gray.

When Tashiro was about to catch up, the woman walked away again.The distance between them shortened and widened suddenly. When Tashiro chased after the woman, he was always blocked by the people in front. This scene repeated countless times, until Tashiro felt someone shaking his shoulder vigorously before opening his eyes. Seeing the aunt who lived nearby and took care of him looking at his face from above, Tashiro vaguely realized that it was her who woke him up. "Mr. Tashiro, Mr. Tashiro." The aunt kept shouting. "Oh." Tashiro replied in a daze. "Mr. Tashiro, it's terrible!"

The aunt stared at her triangular eyes, her expression was completely different from usual, as if something important had happened. Seeing her nervous expression, Tashiro woke up from his sleep.He raised his head and asked: "What's the matter?" "Still asking, Mr. Tashiro, a thief has come in!" "Huh? There?" "Here you are, look!" Tashiro looked in the direction the aunt pointed, and saw that the door of the wardrobe in the room was open, and Tashiro's jacket and trousers were turned into a mess.The front cover and drawers of the bookcase were also pulled open, and the completed manuscripts, letters, and photos placed inside were searched through.

"Look here." The aunt pointed to the book standard again.I saw that all the drawers had been opened, and the letters, manuscript paper, etc. inside were all scattered.Tashiro was stunned for a moment. "It came in from here." The aunt pointed to the window. One of the glass windows facing the alley was opened, and the cold wind blew into the house through the window. Tashiro remembered closing the doors and windows before going to bed, but the window was opened. Looking carefully, it turned out that a piece of the glass above had been burned off, exposing a round hole.This is probably where the thief reached in and opened the latch.

"It's still done by a veteran!" Tashiro sighed secretly while looking at the window.He didn't hear a sound all night. "Did you feel nothing?" The aunt looked at Tashiro in surprise. "I slept too soundly." Tashiro scratched his head and said. "The room was tossed like this by thieves. Mr. Tashiro, can you take a good look to see if you lost anything?" The aunt urged Tashiro as if her own home had been stolen. "There is nothing to steal. I have no money and no wealth. What are the thieves trying to steal?" Tashiro carefully checked the opened wardrobe, drawers and bookcases, but found nothing missing.

"I didn't lose anything." Tashiro straightened up and said.It took him a lot of effort to put the things that the thief had messed up into order. "Is it true that nothing was lost?" The aunt didn't seem to believe it. "Yes. I know my stuff very well." "Huh? Since the thief has entered the house, he should at least take a suit and leave." The aunt muttered in bewilderment. Speaking of which, Tashiro's suits were famous brands, and the materials were imported from England.Tashiro checked the jacket and trousers that had been replaced yesterday, and found that the pockets had obviously been turned over, but the contents, including the wallet containing 30,000 yen, were still intact.

"Strange thing." Tashiro wondered, what was the purpose of the thief entering the house? "Do you want to report it to the police?" the aunt asked. "Nothing was lost, forget it." Tashiro didn't want to make a fuss out of a molehill and make things bigger. "However, it's not wrong for a thief to enter the house, so it's better to report it." The aunt strongly advocated reporting to the police, and she seemed really scared. "That's true." Tashiro was hesitating, the aunt handed over the phone and said to him: "Mr. Tashiro, Mr. Kisaki called you. It seems that something happened."

Tashiro hurriedly answered the phone. "Hello, is this teacher?" Kisaki's voice seemed tense. "What's the matter?" Tashiro asked into the microphone. "Teacher, it's not good." Kisaki said eagerly, "The studio was stolen." "Ah?!" Tashiro was taken aback, "There are also thieves in there?" "You mean...?" Kisaki also asked in surprise, "Could it be that the same thing happened at the teacher's house?" Calling an apartment a home is not strictly appropriate.But Kisaki kept saying that. "Yes. Found it this morning. How's the studio going?"

"Get messed up." "Is there anything missing?" "Not sure. But the camera is fine. And the thief did a strange thing." "Really? Then, I'll go right away." "Should I report it to the police first?" "I'll talk about it after I go." Just as Tashiro put down the phone, the aunt asked in surprise, "Is there a thief in the studio too?" "It seems to be." In order to calm his mind, Tashiro took out a cigarette and smoked it. "Hey, what's going on here? The residence and studio were stolen at the same time. It seems that it is not an ordinary thief."

"It's not like a crime committed by a general fugitive." Tashiro kept thinking while smoking a cigarette. If only the apartment was stolen, the problem would be simple.Now, however, the studio and the apartment were stolen at the same time, so a separate analysis of the problem is required. In any case, let's go to the studio first before drawing conclusions. "Auntie, I'm counting on you here." Tashiro hailed a taxi and went straight to the studio. Arriving at Kanda's studio, Kisaki waited anxiously at the door. "Master, it's messed up inside."

Kisaki opened the door of the studio, and it was really messy inside, all the drawers were pulled open, and the things in the drawers were rummaged through, and many of them were scattered on the floor.Negatives, printed photos, etc. were also turned over unevenly. "Where's the camera?" Tashiro was most concerned with the camera.Because for him as a professional photographer, the few high-end cameras in the studio are worth a thousand dollars. "Not a single camera was lost," Kisaki said. "The thief seems to have broken the lock on the door to get in, but he doesn't seem interested in cameras." "Nothing was stolen? What a strange thing." Tadaro Toshisuke said to himself. The thieves who sneaked into the apartment didn't take anything, they just ransacked the house. "That thief is really weird." Kisaki told Tashiro, "He even went into the dark room to read the film!" "What?!" Tashiro stared in surprise and asked, "How do you know?" "The position and order of hanging the film is different from what I put in yesterday." Kisaki replied, "Last night, after I took back the teacher's camera bag from Shinjuku, I immediately went to the darkroom to develop the film you had taken, and then hung it again. Got up to dry. But the position of the film changed this morning." Tashiro entered the darkroom, and saw more than a dozen developed film rolls hanging in it, all of which were developed and dried by his assistant Kisaki after shooting during the lakeside trip. "Why did the position change?" Tashiro asked Kisaki before looking at the film. "The order is all messed up. It's very different from my arrangement." According to Kisaki, he arranged them from right to left according to the order in which the glue was made.This morning, however, the order of the film rolls was all out of order. "The thief must have gone into the dark room to take down the film and read it. When he hung it back, he forgot the original position and messed up the order." "Well." Tashiro stroked his chin, staring intently at the hanging film and thinking. "There is one more strange thing." "what?" "Did you leave unfinished film in that Contax?" "Yes!" "The back cover of that camera was opened." "what?" "However, I have already taken out the film inside and developed it, and there is no damage. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will all be scrapped." Tashiro gradually understood that the thief came to investigate the film he had taken.The sneak into the apartment was probably because he thought he brought the camera back to the residence. However, their real purpose was certainly not for the photos of the lake scenery, but for worrying that Tashiro took pictures of other situations by the lake. The fact that the film taken on the shore of the lake was not taken away is a good proof. This shows that Tashiro did not capture what they were worried about. Tashiro folded his arms in thought. Who did it?Certainly not your average thief.Tashiro wished to find out the perpetrator immediately. Suddenly, he thought that the thief who sneaked into the studio had opened the back cover of the camera, so of course his fingerprints would be left. "Kizaki," Tashiro Uo hurriedly said, "Call the police right away, and tell them that this place has been stolen." Kisaki didn't understand why the teacher suddenly changed his mind, but he hung up the phone immediately. An hour later, the district police station sent three criminal police officers. "What was stolen?" the policeman asked. "Things are not stolen. But please look at this." Tashiro said, pointing to the messy studio. "Hey, that's it." The criminal policeman showed a disappointed expression on his face.Because there was no actual loss, they seemed to be discouraged, "Did the thief run away after the trouble?" No one was there at the time, and of course no one would have seen how to make trouble and escape.Tashiro had no choice but to remain silent. The three criminal police officers pretended to check the entrance and exit where the thief committed the crime.Thieves broke in by breaking the lock, and even outsiders could tell the entrance and exit at a glance. "Mr. Interpol," Tashiro showed the "Contax" brand camera with a handkerchief, "The thief opened the back cover of this camera, maybe fingerprints were left on it, please check." "yes?" The criminal police took out the identification tool from the purse, and then sprinkled some white powder on the camera casing. Tashiro stood aside, watching impatiently. I saw the policeman sweeping the white powder on the camera with a brush, put the camera on a handkerchief, and took it to a bright place to observe carefully with a magnifying glass. After a while, the detective put down the magnifying glass, and said to his colleague or Tashiro: "No fingerprints were found." "Huh? No fingerprints?" Tashiro observed the camera carefully, and of course he couldn't see anything. "But, this camera has indeed been touched." Tashiro said. "That's because the criminal was wearing rubber gloves." The policeman replied, "It's the kind of rubber film gloves that doctors use when performing operations. Wearing them, the fingers can move freely and can perform delicate work." "That's right." Tashiro shouted.It really was a well-planned criminal activity. "The lock on the door was smashed, maybe fingerprints will be left on it!" Tashiro said again. Although the criminal police thought that there would be no gains, they still sprinkled white powder on the smashed lock. "There are still no fingerprints!" The detective blew off the white powder on the lock and said to Tashiro, "Since there are no fingerprints on the camera, there won't be any on this." Tashiro stood motionless with his arms folded. Now that he had changed his mind, he planned to let the criminal police continue the investigation. "To tell you the truth, my apartment was also burglarized last night. Could you please check it?" "Huh?" The policeman showed a look of astonishment on his face, "Did you lose anything?" "Nothing was lost. But I would like to ask you to check whether the criminal left any fingerprints." "Where is your residence?" After asking the address, the criminal policeman said, "It is not under our control, so please go to the local police station." The criminal police asked Tashiro to fill out a report form in detail, and then went back. "Oh, I can't help it!" Tashiro had no choice but to hang up the phone at the local police station. Tashiro returned to the apartment.Two hours later, three other criminal policemen arrived. They first checked the thief's entrance. "Come in from here." Tian Shiro pointed to the glass window and said.The glass in the window had been burned open so that a small hole could be reached through. "Hey! It's still done by an expert." The criminal policeman opened the window and looked outside.This is the second floor, and there is a small alley below the window. A criminal policeman took tools out of his purse, sprinkled white powder on the window frames, wardrobe drawers, writing and tables, and after a while, took out a magnifying glass to observe carefully everywhere. "I can't find any fingerprints," the detective said regretfully to Tashiro, "the criminal probably wore gloves when he committed the crime." "Has something been stolen?" "No. It's just that the house was turned into a mess by thieves." The detective had a surprised expression on his face. "What a strange thief. If you want to come in and steal something, you can at least take a suit." They saw five or six suits hanging in the closet, and heard that nothing was missing, so they were completely discouraged. "Anyway, it would be great if nothing was lost. Please be more careful in the future." The detective went back after saying that. Tashiro thought, since the thief who sneaked into the apartment also wore gloves, there is no doubt that it must be the same thief who went to the studio. Since the time of the crime is not known, it is difficult to determine whether the thief arrived at the apartment or the studio first.Anyway, the thief went to both places on the same night anyway. The purpose of the crime is also completely clear. The thief came for the film Tashiro shot by the lake.They worry that something in those films is against them.If there are such negatives, I intend to steal them.So what's the downside for them?Tashiro recalled the place he walked with the camera on his back.Since the other party was secretly monitoring his actions, of course there were things they were afraid of revealing in those places he had been to. "Please don't get involved in this matter." The note left by the young woman who was overlooking Mount Fuji on the plane appeared before Tashiro's eyes.In a sense, the appearance of strange thieves is actually a kind of "warning". "Do you want to scare people! Hmph, who would do that!" Tashiro felt his fighting spirit in his heart.He remembered that he hadn't contacted Ito after returning, so he picked up the phone and dialed the number of Wenshengshe.