Chapter 14 "Strangers on a Train" (Ukai·Zumi)

Haruhiko Zentsuji, who disappeared late at night, didn't come back until dawn.The Sunagawa Police Department, which said on the other end of the phone, "arrive immediately", probably has not arrived yet because of the heavy snow blocking the way.Ukai, Azumi, and Mariko Toyama spent a restless night in the living room of Zentsuji's house.Mariko occupied a sofa and slept soundly lying on her side, and Zhu Mei took naps from time to time to survive the night of worry and fear. In this way, at sunrise at 6:50 in the morning, Zhu Mei never knew how many times she woke up from light sleep.Looking out of the window through the gap in the curtains, the sky is cloudy like sleepy, and I can't expect to welcome the fresh morning light.Even so, the night is still far away, and more importantly, the snow has stopped from last night to now, which is the most grateful fact.

The pelican next to Zhu Mei maintained a sitting posture with his hands folded and his chest motionless, and he didn't seem to be dozing off at all, probably because the detective was used to staying up late after all.Zhu Mei asked with admiration. "You've been awake...?" "Always awake." The detective responded by staring at the air. "not tired……?" "Not sleepy." The detective responded, still staring at the air. "A detective in the middle of a case doesn't want to sleep, that's all. Staying up for a day or two is nothing."

"Ah...that's it...then I can't be a detective..." Zhu Mei rubbed her sleepy eyes and got up staggeringly. "I'm going to make coffee..." After she walked into the kitchen and turned on the faucet on the sink to wash her face, she finally regained her spirits and recovered to the point where she could make coffee normally. "Okay!" Zhu Mei poured a lot of coffee beans into the coffee machine and said, "Let me make a cup of strong morning coffee!" She mustered up her energy and pressed the switch, then plugged in the plug and pressed the switch again.But the coffee machine only made a roar that sounded like it was in pain. "Huh? So, I forgot to add water!"

Ten minutes later, Zhu Mei headed to the living room with the three cups of coffee she had finally finished.In the living room, Mariko Toyama rubbed her sleepy eyes and said good morning.She took the coffee cup with a dull expression, took a sip of her strong morning coffee, and then groaned "Woo!", her face stern as if she had been punched hard. "This coffee is really refreshing." At this time, Yukai's cell phone rang lightly as if he had just woken up.He walked to the corner of the living room, put the phone to his ear, ended the call after a short conversation, just left the phone open, and dialed another number.However, no one seemed to answer the call, so he silently put away the phone.

"The Sunagawa Police Department called to inform, and they will arrive in about an hour." "Yes, the road is open for traffic?" Zhu Mei was a little puzzled. "Isn't it too early? Even if the snow has stopped, it's time to start snow removal now?" "So, he's coming directly in the snowplow. So he'll be there in an hour." "What a mess." In Zhu Mei's mind, the scene of the snowplow rushing to the murder scene with the police lights on.It's odd, but it's possible that the detective did that. "By the way, are you still unable to contact Ms. Sakiko?"

"Well, that's not enough. There has been no answer just like last night." The detective took a sip from the coffee cup from Zhu Mei. "Woo!" The detective quietly put the coffee cup on the table: "Okay, what should we do next?" Mariko immediately proposed cheerfully: "Everyone, it's rare that the weather turns into good weather. Let's go to the garden to see? Maybe there will be some clues?" Mariko's words caused Zhu Mei to look at the window."Good weather" indeed.Even through the curtains, I can clearly see that the outside of the window is much brighter than before.Zhu Mei got up and opened the curtains. Outside the window was a picturesque silver world. The reflection of the morning sun and snow instantly filled the room, reaching a dazzling level. This scene instantly drove away the uneasiness and fear in her heart.

"That's right. If you re-examine it under Father Sun, you may find clues that you missed yesterday." "Yes. Let's do it. Besides, Mr. Detective, you haven't fulfilled your agreement last night. I haven't forgotten." "Last night's appointment? Ah, I have to tell you everything I know, right?" "Yes, I will ask as I go. Alright, let's go!" The three walked out the door together.In front of his eyes was a pure white world.Whether it is the courtyard, mansion, garage, or even trees, flowers and stones of the Zentsuji family, they are all in pure white.The snow that is only itchy in the evening is now appreciated in the morning light, and there is an almost sacred beauty.Zhu Mei tremblingly took her first step towards the snow, and the soft snow easily swallowed her feet down to her calves.The snow accumulation in the mountains reaches 30 to 40 centimeters. It seems that the weather forecast last night has become a reality.

"It's so spectacular. It's probably the first time that there has been such a heavy snowfall in Cuidichuan City?" "Maybe, but this is Zhulu Village." "Isn't it the same? Because the city of Cuidichuan is right next to it." "Exactly." The three of them wandered aimlessly around the courtyard, inspecting the concrete road from the huge main entrance to the exit at the outer entrance and the Western-style garden, especially the garage and the surrounding area of ​​the gourd pond, but they couldn't find any clues about Haruhiko's whereabouts.

During this time, Ukai explained to Mariko in an orderly manner the various wonderful events that happened around them from last night to this morning.Rather than responding to Mariko's request, it should be said that he used it to organize his thoughts.Ukai's account begins with the amazing scene where he meets the blond-haired youth with Haruhiko, and then includes Haruhiko's weird attitude when Mrs. Sakiko is out, Haruhiko's weird outing before dinner, the weird call Haruhiko made after dinner, and Haruhiko's digging in the middle of the night wonderful scene. "To put it simply, Uncle Haruhiko has been doing 'wonderful' things since last night." After Mariko nodded in acceptance, she raised two fingers. "However, with regard to the explanation just now, I would like to add two points."

"Oh, it looks like you know something." "First of all, it's the place where my uncle goes out before dinner. The people who live in Mizunuma's house are not women, but uncle's shogi friends. But I don't think my uncle went to play shogi in these short forty minutes." "I see. The second point to add?" "About the phone call after dinner." Mariko suddenly turned to Akimi. "Miss Zhu Mei was also there at the time, right?" "Yes, right there. You remember it so well." Looking back now, it was really amazing.After about ten seconds, Haruyan's face changed drastically without saying a few words, and he stood there holding the microphone for a long time.Haruhiko's appearance at that time also left a strong impression on Zhu Mei's heart.

"So, Miss Mariko was also next to Haruhiko at the time. Ah, did you overhear the phone call?" "It's not eavesdropping, it's just a coincidence that I heard the voice coming from the microphone." Actually the same.In the after-dinner scene, Mariko was indeed closer to Haruhiko than Akimi.It is possible to overhear the microphone from her position by chance. "Anyway, this is just right." Ukai asked with his upper body out. "What exactly was mentioned on the phone?" "I didn't hear every word clearly. After all, it was the voice leaking from the microphone, and I couldn't hear some parts. But the other party must be a man. As soon as my uncle picked up the microphone, the man said, 'Yo, Haruhiko Sir? It's me.' That's it." "You, what are you talking about? It turns out that the other party speaks a Kansai dialect!" The unexpected fact made Ukai nervous, but Mariko responded simply by shaking her head. "No, he speaks in standard accent. But the meaning is the same, so it doesn't matter?" Suddenly getting rid of the tension, Yukai staggered and sat on the snow as if feeling dizzy.It seems that the detective can't keep up with her big and over-the-top style.Zhumi made a request for a detective agency instead of Ukai. "If possible, is it convenient to tell the truth? This is a very important situation, please don't add Kansai accent." "Understood." Mariko nodded bluntly, pausing for a moment as if sorting out her memory. "Well, sure, that's what the guy said: 'Hey, Mr. Haruhiko? It's me.'" Ukai took out the manual and wrote down her words. "In other words, the tone was intimate." "That's right, it feels a lot like pretending to be familiar." "Is it standard cavity?" "Standard cavity." "Did that person mention his name?" "There should be, but I didn't hear it clearly at the time. It was probably 'Ando', 'Kondo' or 'Endo'. In short, it is this kind of surname." "Well, to put it simply, it's a surname like '〇藤'. Hmm... but there are many such surnames. For example, 'Gondo', 'Kondo' or 'Endo', and so on. The man himself What did you say after giving your surname?" "I don't get the point, but he seems to be saying 'Will your wife...' or something." "What's wrong with 'Will your wife...'?" "Don't know. He seemed to mention doing 'something' later, but there was a strong wind blowing outside the window, so I didn't catch it." "That's all the man said?" "No, there is a follow-up, and I heard it quite clearly after that. I remember him saying 'this time it's your turn', and he must be right." "'This time it's your turn'... he, did he really say that? Are you sure?" Ukai confirmed with an unprecedentedly excited expression. "Really, I'm sure that's right, that person did say that, and at the end simply said 'goodbye', and unilaterally hung up the phone." "'It's your turn this time, goodbye!'..." Ukai re-examined the words written in the manual. "In other words, this is what the man said on the phone. It started with an intimate 'Yo, Mr. Haruhiko? It's me' segment, followed by 'Will your wife...', followed by 'This time it's my turn You're gone', and finally ended the conversation with 'goodbye'. Are you sure?" "Yeah, that's right. At least that's all I hear." What does the new fact provided by Mariko Toyama mean?Does this matter hold the important key to this incident?Zhu Mei is completely clueless.But this incident seems to have caused a great shock to the pelican. "It actually happened like this!" After the pelican exclaimed, he closed the manual with a snap, and began to walk around in the snow, as if he was sorting out the thoughts that came to his mind.Only the snow around him became firmer and flatter after being trampled on, Azumi and Mariko watched his behavior with uneasy expressions.In the end, the track he walked turned into a circle, and he slipped and fell on the hard snow he stepped on at the center of the circle. "Difficult, unbelievable..." "..." What Zhu Mei did to this man was even more unbelievable. "What, what's going on? Tell me about it?" Zhu Mei looked at the slipping Ukai and asked, and he just stared at the sky and spoke. "Strangersona Train by Alfred Hitchcock!" Zhu Mei was so frightened that she hugged Mariko, and the two stepped back five meters in one go and turned their heads to look at each other. "My God, he seems to have broken his head." "It seems better not to get close to him." Yukai stood up in front of the two people watching from a distance, and acted nonchalantly, not knowing who to speak to. "Last night, a strange phone call was made to Haruhiko. The man on the other end of the phone said to Haruhiko, 'This time it's your turn'. When I heard this sentence, I had an inspiration." Mariko trembled frequently. "He started talking to himself, what's going on?" "Don't worry, leave this to me." Zhu Mei patted the frightened Mariko to reassure her, then mustered up the courage to walk to Ukai, bent over and gave a sweet smile. "Mr. Ugai, what kind of inspiration did you come up with?" "Hi, Miss Zhu Mei, so you are here. It's nothing, the line on the phone is almost the same as the line I heard before." "Where did you hear that?" "Movie." "Movie?" "That's right. It's Strangers on a Train." "Strangers on a Train...remember the early horror movies?" "Yes, the director is Alfred Hitchcock!" Great, he's in the right mind, and what he says is logical, so it doesn't matter. "Miss Mariko, it looks like he's fine, come here." Mariko entered the circle tremblingly and continued to discuss the topic of movies. "So, what kind of movie is that 'Strangers on a Train'?" "In a word, it's a film that exchanges murder." Ukai introduced the film in the style of film critic Jun Hamamura. "At the beginning of the plot, a mysterious man approached the male protagonist on the train and offered to exchange murder. The male protagonist has a wife who is not getting along well, and a beautiful mistress. The male protagonist wants to be with the mistress , but his wife became an obstacle. On the other hand, the mysterious man hates his father's powerful style and wants to kill his father to inherit the inheritance. Simply put, each of the two men has a person they want to kill. Understand?" "Hey, that's the way to exchange murders. So what?" "Hearing the exchange of killing invitations, the male protagonist was greatly moved by the plan, but his self-control won in the end, and he rejected the invitation. The contract of exchanging killings was not established, and the male protagonist was separated from the mysterious man just like that. However, the movie started strangely from here Evolution. This mysterious man asked out the actor's wife without permission and killed him in the amusement park." "What's the matter? It's really messed up." "They didn't agree to exchange killings, did they?" "Yes, the two did not reach an agreement, but the mysterious man unilaterally implemented the exchange killing plan, and unilaterally called the male lead and said: 'This time it's your turn.'" "In other words, the man meant 'I killed your wife, now it's your turn to kill my father', right?" "Sounds like the phone call to my uncle yesterday." "That's right. The guy on the phone last night, first said 'I'll make your wife...' and then 'This time it's your turn'. The tone was more polite, but the content was pretty much the same." "Even so, how is this possible..." "I certainly don't think the exact same thing will happen in reality, but something similar could happen." "In other words, do you think reality is exchanging killings?" "Yes. And if Haruhiko is an accomplice, what will happen?" Ukai explained one of the possibilities in a cautious tone. "Suppose Haruhiko wants to kill Mrs. Sakiko. On the other hand, there is a character X who wants to kill Y. If Haruhiko and X agree to exchange killings, X will kill Mrs. Sakiko instead of Haruhiko, and of course Haruhiko will prepare an alibi for the time of the murder." "So, so it happened at dinner last night?" "In this case, Ms. Mariko and I will be witnesses for the alibi?" "Of course you will also be one of the witnesses, but a friendly cohabitant or hired help lacks credibility even if they testify. It is better to have an outsider with no interest to prove that he is not present." "Even if it's the best, but we're the only ones here?" "That's right, that's why Haruyan deliberately went out before dinner." "Ah, so it's Mr. Mizunuma!" Zhu Mei clapped her hands involuntarily. "Haruhiko asked his shogi friend, Mr. Mizunuma, to act as an alibi witness!" "That's right. With that in mind, it's understandable for him to go out suddenly." "Then, during the forty minutes Haruhiko stayed at Mr. Mizunuma's house, a homicide happened somewhere in the distance?" "It's possible. It's always just one of the speculations." Ukai continued with a cautious attitude. "After Haruhiko came back from Mr. Mizunuma's house to have dinner with you, X called at the end of the meal and said, 'I killed your wife, this time it's your turn.' In other words, the call was not just to inform the plan. According to the plan, it is also urging Haruhiko to kill Y. According to this speculation, it is inevitable that Haruhiko's expression is so tense." "That's right, I seem to understand." "But the next thing is the problem. Haruhiko performed strange actions in the middle of the night. For some reason, he did something like digging a grave, and disappeared without a trace. So, where did he go?" "Could it be that Haruhiko is going to kill Y?" "If it's an exchange of killing people, that's the way it is." "But in this case, who is X? Who is Y?" "If X is calling, the person is male, a guy named 'Ando', 'Kondo' or 'Endo'. On the other hand, the identity of Y is unknown. According to the plot of the movie, Y should belong to X Father. But reality should be different from the movie." "Of course, exchanging murders is too outrageous." Zhu Mei advocated loudly with a prayer-like thought, and provided a basis to prove that it was outrageous. "What's more, even if he is going to kill people, how will he get there? This is not an urban area, and it snowed heavily last night, and the roads were closed to traffic. There is definitely no way to drive down the mountain." "That's what I said... But even if I don't know the meaning of digging the grave late at night, I think this speculation is quite reasonable. However, this is the worst-case scenario. Assuming this script is true, Mrs. Sakiko has already..." "You said she was killed? How is that possible!" Zhu Mei grabbed Ukai's arm and pleaded. "Call Ms. Sakiko's cell phone to see, it may be possible to get through now. No, it must be through." "That's right, let's do that." Ukai quickly took out his cell phone from his breast pocket and dialed Mrs. Sakiko's number.Just at this time…… "Look, what is that?" Mariko seemed to have discovered something suddenly, pointing to a corner of the courtyard and asking. Azumi looked in the direction Mariko was pointing at. There was a fence surrounding the garden, now covered with snow, like a white wall.A piece of brown cloth was hanging somewhere on the fence, and the cloth fluttered in the wind, as if it would fly away at any moment. "Ah, Mr. Detective, look! It's a scarf!" Mariko's unexpected discovery made Ukai temporarily stop operating her phone and ran to the fence, Zhu Mei also followed.When I got closer, I found that it was indeed a scarf hanging on the branch of the fence, and it was not an ordinary scarf. "I remember this. It's the scarf that Haruhiko wore when he was digging a hole late at night." "The fact that this scarf was hung on this fence this morning means..." Ukai said to confirm the appearance of the fence.This place happened to be between two trees, and there was a gap big enough for a person to slip through.Yukai put the phone back in his pocket for the time being, and boldly put half of his body into the gap. "Oh, this gap can be drilled. I might be able to get out of the fence." The pelican disappeared entirely on the other side of the trees and appeared to have slipped through the fence without incident.The detective then exclaimed. "Oh, what's going on here! Uh...so that's how it is, after Haruhiko dug a hole last night, he got out of here and disappeared somewhere...it's really surprising." Zhu Mei, who was on the other side of the fence, had no idea what Ukai was surprised at. "Wait a minute, I'm going too." Zhu Mei imitated Ukai and tried to get through the gap, Mariko whispered in surprise when she saw this. "You're so curious, be careful." Really a little curious.Even though Zhu Mei thought so, she couldn't stop the curiosity that had been aroused.Being hooked by bushes and branches all over her body, she managed to get out of the fence and was immediately at a loss for words. "..." "Hey, you're here. I wanted to tell you that this place is dangerous, so I asked you not to come here." "This, what is this..." Zhu Mei mistakenly believed that she was a ski jumping contestant. "Is this the jumping platform?" "It's not a jumping platform. As you can see, it's just above a steep slope." Ukai explained nonchalantly. "It's only natural when you think about it. The Zentsuji mansion is built on a hillside, and it's probably an area formed by mounds of soil, so there are no trees. Now this steep slope is covered with snow, as you said, it looks like a ski jumping race. The runway, but last night's Haruhiko should be surprising, he must have just rushed down with a shovel... No, it should be said to slide down the slope. This is an abnormal behavior worthy of surprise, out of the ordinary." "Then, Haruhiko really did it to fulfill the promise of exchanging murder..." In Zhu Mei's mind, the image of Haruhiko sliding down the slope with fierce eyes flashed in his mind, but there was no time to indulge in this delusion right now. "Forget about that, call, call. Call Miss Sakiko!" "Oh, I forgot." Yukai took out the phone from his pocket again, but the phone left the detective's hand and fell on the snow not far away.There is a very unstable area that has started to slope. "Well, luckily it fell on snow. It would break if it fell on concrete." "But there is a slope there, and it feels like it will slide down at any time." "It can't even think about it." Ukai squatted down on the spot without thinking too much, and stretched his right hand to the mobile phone that was delicately balanced on the slope.But the phone was out of reach a few centimeters in front of his fingertips.Ukai continued to move his weight forward, and Zhu Mei felt a chill down his spine as he watched his body gradually lean forward. This man actually did such a dangerous thing!She was even a little angry. But it was impossible for Ukai to know what she was thinking, so he said "It's almost there!" He continued to reach out without thinking too much. "Stop! This is dangerous!" "No, no problem... oh!" Ukai worked harder at the end, and finally touched the phone.At the moment when Ukai happily shouted "Success!", Azumi reached the limit of her patience. "Dangerous!" Zhu Mei couldn't help hugging Yukai. "Wow, Miss Zhu Mei!" Ukai was frightened by her instead. "You, what are you doing! Hey, don't push, don't move around, you will fall, you will fall...!" "You can't fall!" "Stupid! I mean you're going to fall!" "Huh!" Zhu Mei realized for the first time that half of her body was already on the slope after hearing him say that. "Wow ah ah ah ah!" This time it was Zhu Mei's turn to grab the Ukai, but it was too late, the two of them lost their balance completely, and their bodies were on the other side of the slope.Zhu Mei grabbed Ukai, Ukai grabbed Zhu Mei, and the two grabbed each other with desperate expressions. "Ah ah ah ah..." "Wow ah ah ah..." The two slid endlessly along the snow-covered steep slope.