Chapter 2 Chapter two

Twenty-two days ago, on the night of April 27th. The Xinshan Police Station of Yamano-cho 2-chome, Suginami District received a report-there were many quarrels and women's screams in a corner of the residential area of ​​Xinkura-cho 3-chome in the district.The call to report the incident was not to 110, but to the Johor Bahru Police Station. The informant was Tomiko Fukada, fifty-two years old, living in Yamano-cho 1-chome.She volunteered her name and address on the phone.Tomiko is a representative of the Yamano Town Women's Association and often participates in crime prevention activities, so she got to know the police officers at the local police station.Inspector Kazunari Sahashi (55 years old) who received the notification that day also knew her and trusted her, so he immediately rode his bicycle to the scene.

Yamano-cho and Arakura-cho are adjacent to each other in the east-west direction.Six years ago, when the local government set up a police station in this area, it took a word from each of the two towns and named it Xinshan Police Station.In particular, Yamanocho 1-chome and Xinkura 3-chome still retain the style and features of the past farming land, and the two places are only separated by a waterway less than one meter away, so they are very close. Fukada Tomiko's home faces this waterway. She mentioned in the report call that she heard a quarrel at the construction site of the three-story pre-sale house under construction on the other side of the waterway, so Inspector Sahashi went to the construction site.From the Xinshan police station to the scene, you have to go through Yamanocho 1-chome, and you will also pass by Fukada's house.Tomiko was standing at the door, and when she saw the bicycle approaching, she waved the flashlight in her hand.The inspector stopped the car and advised her to go back inside.

Fukada Tomiko held a flashlight and shouted "over there, over there", pointing to the half-finished house covered with blue plastic sheeting.And it's just around the corner. "I heard the noise, peeped through the window, and heard a woman screaming, and then someone opened the plastic sheet and ran out!" Fukada Tomiko was very excited and also seemed very disturbed. Inspector Sahashi repeatedly advised her to stay in the house.Then ride a bicycle and cross the concrete bridge on the waterway, and ride to the plastic sheeting on the construction site to stop. Both Yamanocho and Arakuracho are residential areas, and like other residential areas in Tokyo, they have the same history, and every household has built a brand new streetscape.On the other hand, there are still some large landowners who have been passed down from generation to generation in this area. They are keen to revitalize the agriculture in the suburbs. Compared with other areas in Tokyo, there are fewer cases of selling farmland and building residential areas here.

This phenomenon is fortunate for the land.However, in the mid-1980s, landowners were overwhelmed by the estate tax arising from inheritance, and more and more people sold their land.Builders and small and medium-sized real estate companies have attacked this area one after another. The former built large-scale collective housing, while the latter built pre-sale houses in a guerrilla manner, and advertised them as "single-family buildings in Tokyo" and displayed them for sale. Overlooking this area, the Shankun and Xincang areas have a large area of ​​green farmland, as well as a small residential area that gathers roofs and exterior walls of various colors, like stippling, forming a color block map that is rarely seen in Tokyo.Today, the green color blocks are disappearing one by one, replaced by small blocks of residential areas.However, the unprecedented downturn has made the newly added small color dots less dense than before, and the gaps between dots are so loose that it is sad.

In this incident, the three houses covered with blue plastic sheeting were one of these small dots.Its contractor and owner is a construction company called "Yamada Kowuten". Their prices are not low, but they are known for their good quality.The Dou Da logo printed on the plastic sheet is a yellow bird nesting on a branch. Inspector Sahashi got out of the car, lit the house with a flashlight, and saw the yellow bird at first sight.In fact, only wild birds build nests, but this pattern looks like a canary both horizontally and vertically.Sahashi, who loves bird watching, can't help correcting this mistake every time he passes by.That day, he still remembered it immediately.Afterwards, he would talk to his colleagues about his doubts.He said that when a person is facing an emergency, it is easier to think of insignificant trifles.

Ninety percent of the three houses under construction have been built. In the past, they should be regarded as the state before the beam-raising ceremony, without a temporary roof.Pre-sale homes most often use the 2×4 construction method, so there is little need for a temporary roof.In order to protect the foundation and beams of the house from wind and rain, builders will cover them with plastic sheets.Yamada Kowu shop is also very careful in this point.At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the appearance of the plastic sheeting. Three years ago, the land belonged to the Eguchi family's farmland before it was sold to Yamada Kowudian.As far as farmland is concerned, this land is too narrow, less than 300 ping. After entering Heisei, Eguchi's family hastily stopped farming and moved away from here. However, they did not sell the land. Available for rent.When the Xinshan Police Station was established, Chief Inspector Sahashi was dispatched to the station almost at the same time, so he was also familiar with the fact that the land was still a vegetable garden.In some vegetable gardens, there are many unsightly but delicious tomatoes or eggplants; some vegetable gardens may be rented by novices, and they can’t grow any vegetables, leaving a flat area of ​​land wasted.

Today, more than half of the land of 300 ping is vacant, and in the rectangular vacant lot like a chocolate chip, three houses suddenly appeared in the southwest, exactly a quarter of the space. No matter what Fukada Tomiko heard at the time, there is no sound here, and there is no one in sight.Inspector Sahashi stepped on the dirt and walked around the three houses with a flashlight.There is no abnormality in the building on the left, there is no abnormality in the middle, and there is nothing abnormal in the building on the right. Inspector Sahashi waved the flashlight to illuminate the yellow bird logo again.He inadvertently moved the light from left to right, when he noticed something.

The tip of the yellow bird's wing was splashed with some drops. The chief inspector approached the plastic sheet and took a closer look. The drops were not one, but several, black and still wet. The Inspector thought to himself: This is blood. Before that, he hadn't planned to open the plastic sheet and enter the house.Although Fukada Tomiko said "I saw someone coming out of it", there is no one now.Even if it is a policeman, if he breaks into a house under construction without authorization, it is very likely to cause dissatisfaction with the owner, so he must try to avoid this situation as much as possible.

However, there is no time to think about it now.He made up his mind to flip over the plastic sheet, but the entire sheet was fixed quite firmly, and could only be pulled up fifty centimeters at most.This is also a security measure for the industry.The inspector squatted down and entered the inside of the plastic sheet in the posture of drilling into the sewer. You don't even need to look for it, "he" is lying in front of the inspector general, dressed in a suit, with his body twisted halfway, his arms curled up around his face, his feet loosely spread out, and there is a men's briefcase next to his face.

The house under construction should have been filled with the smell of building materials, but the smell of blood overwhelmed it and permeated the whole room. Inspector Sahashi reflexively picked up his baton.Then he looked at his watch, the fluorescent pointer was pointing at ten twenty-nine in the evening. The light from the flashlight hit something about two meters below the body.The Inspector approached cautiously and scanned the ground.He found a knife with a blade about 20 centimeters long. Not only was the blade stained with blood, but the handle was also stained.After confirming this, the chief inspector left the scene and picked up the radio.

Subsequently, the identity of the deceased was immediately confirmed through the briefcase and other belongings of the victim.Ryosuke Soda, 48 years old, is the head of the customer management section of the second sales department of Orion Foods in Tokyo.The deceased's home was located in the corner of Nikuracho 2-chome, less than ten minutes' walk from the crime scene.His family consists of his wife Chunhui (42 years old) and daughter Yimei (16 years old). There are three members of his family. Inspector Sahashi thought of another irrelevant thought.He said afterwards: This area is very quiet at night.Therefore, when the radio was used to call for backup, the siren of the police car should have reached the victim's wife in Arakuracho 2-chome. Maybe she didn't pay attention, but she should have heard it.He said: "Imagining that scene is really chilling."

---

Notes: