Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Sandbags

"Mitsuki, I hope you can take the night train to Osaka tonight. I don't need to say more, you should know why. The butterfly murder case is the most attention-grabbing case recently, and I don't know what will happen in the future Development, at present, the most capable reporters of our newspaper in the Osaka branch have been dispatched to cover this case. However, since the people involved in the case are all from Tokyo, and the murder of Fujimoto Shoji is involved, it is best for us to send one People go to support." On the evening of October 21st, Mr. Tanabe, the editor-in-chief of Shindai News Agency, ordered me to go to Osaka to report on the Butterfly Murder Case. Since the murder of Shoji Fujimoto was involved again, every evening newspaper in Tokyo that day made a lot of noise about the news. .I couldn't wait for a moment, and was in a hurry to leave the newspaper office to get ready to go, when Mr. Tanabe stopped me.

"I'm going to leave before I've finished listening, you're really impatient." "Yes, is there anything else?" "It's not a big deal, but I don't know if your master Yuli is free recently? If he is convenient, I hope you can invite him to take part... Of course, the cost will be paid by the newspaper." At this moment, the phone on the desk rang suddenly.Mr. Tanabe frowned, picked up the receiver impatiently, but handed it to me with a smile on his face before saying a few words. "Say Cao Cao, and Cao Cao will be there. Master Yuli called you, you should ask Master for help."

In fact, there is no such thing as please or not. When I heard the call from Master Yuli, I immediately grinned. "Master Yuri will also take the night train to Osaka tonight. Because of the butterfly killing incident, Mr. Satoshiro Hara, the husband of the victim Hara Sakura, sent a telegram to ask Master Yuri for help. Master Yuri just called to ask me Would you like to go with him and meet at Tokyo Station at ten o'clock tonight. Mr. Tanabe, do you have anything else to do?" I didn't care whether Mr. Tanabe heard my last sentence, so I rushed out of the chief editor's office and went to the investigation department in the agency to check the basic information of the people involved in the case.

"Mr. Mitsuki is going on a business trip to Osaka?" "Well, for the butterfly killing incident." "Master Yuri isn't going this time?" "No, of course the master is going too. It seems that we will work together again." "It's great to hear Mr. Mitsuki say that. I'm sure we'll be able to read exciting reports in the near future, right?" "Well, stay tuned. I'm going then." Master Yuri and I are both punctual people.At ten o'clock, I just got off at the boarding place at Tokyo Station one second before, and Mr. Yuri got out of the car that arrived next second.When I saw Master Yuri, I couldn't help laughing.

"You're still on time..." "Master, you are too, just like the Count of Monte Cristo, every second is accurate..." We looked at each other and smiled. We took the train from Tokyo to Kobe at 10:15 in the evening.In retrospect, I noticed that this train was the one taken by the Hara Sakura Opera Troupe the night before yesterday.We barely talked about the murder on the train, because the master advocated as little speculation as possible before actually participating in the investigation.When I told the information I collected in the agency's internal investigation department, the master just nodded, indicating that he knew it. It seems that the master has already made a general investigation before leaving.Soon we were falling asleep one after another.This train arrived in Osaka on time at 8:7 am on the 22nd. After we had a quick breakfast in the station restaurant, Master Yuri and I split up. He went to the N Hotel in Kitahama, while I Go to the Osaka branch of the Shin Ilbo office located in Sakurabashi.We made an appointment to meet at N Hotel at 12:00 noon.

Before leaving Tokyo, I made a long-distance call to inform the Osaka branch, so Shimadzu, who was in charge of the incident at the newspaper, greeted me at the station.Shimadzu and I worked together in Tokyo two years ago, and we got along quite well. "Hi!" "Hi, hard work." "With me as a burden, I ask you to take care of me while I'm in Osaka." "Wherever you are, I'll be safe with you." Shimadzu spoke with a strange Osaka accent. "By the way, our newspaper did a good job this morning. The incident of finding the driver was only reported by our newspaper. I was very happy when I saw it at Osaka Station. Well done, Shimadzu."

"It's easy to talk, thanks to you, I finally managed to be in charge of the city edition. Have you eaten yet? Have you eaten? Let's have a cup of tea first and then talk slowly." We went into the cafeteria in the basement of the company.Just now I mentioned that Shimadzu's performance is such that the driver and co-pilot who transported the double bass box containing Hara Sakura's body to the backstage door of the Nakanoshima Public Hall have been found by the police.It hasn't been mentioned in any newspaper other than us.When I bought a newspaper at Kyoto Station halfway, the local newspaper of Shindai hadn’t mentioned it yet, but after arriving in Osaka, several lines of text reports about this clue appeared in the Osaka city edition.

"Not much nonsense, can you explain in more detail what the driver explained to the police?" "Well, what those two guys said about this is a bit strange." Shimadzu explained to me while drinking tea. The names of the driver and the co-pilot are Kamekichi Hashiba and Ginzo Sakamoto. These two people have been hanging out since the evening of the 20th, and the police did not find them until late last night.When they were taken to the Sonezaki Police Station, the investigation headquarters of the murder case, the two immediately admitted that they were indeed responsible for sending the double bass case to the back door of the Nakanoshima Public Hall.After sorting out their confessions, the situation that day was roughly like this:

Shortly after noon on the 20th, they drove from Noda to Sakura Bridge in an empty car without passengers, and were stopped by a man in front of a certain apartment when they passed Fukushima.The man was wearing a black suit, a black coat, and a black felt hat with the collar turned up and the brim of the hat pulled low. He also wore a pair of large sunglasses and a mask.They therefore cannot tell the man's physical age.At that time, the man leaned the double bass case upright beside him. After the man got into the car, he told them to drive to the Nakanoshima Public Hall, and the double bass case was also taken into the car.Because the man was wearing a mask, his voice was so low that they couldn't hear them clearly.When the car reached Sakura Bridge, the man suddenly asked them to stop, saying that he had to get off here because he remembered something important.The man still said in that vague, low voice that was almost inaudible: "Excuse me, please help me deliver this double bass box to the backstage of the public hall." Hastily left.

Hashiba and Sakamoto suddenly became suspicious of the suspicious appearance of the man.The co-pilot Sakamoto looked back at the double bass box on the back seat and said, "I've seen this kind of thing like an enlarged version of a violin before. It's not so heavy, and the musician can even carry it with one hand. But just now When the man carried it into the car, he looked terribly heavy, this is too strange, there must be something wrong..." So when the two of them passed by Nakanoshima, they did not go to the Nakanoshima Public Hall, but continued to move forward, crossed the Tenjin Bridge from Tenman, and then drove along the Yodo River to the outskirts of Osaka, parked the car on a deserted river, and opened the car. Double Bass Box Confirmation.Unexpectedly, the piano case was not locked.

"When they found that the body of Madame Butterfly was in the piano case, they were frightened out of their wits. The strange thing is that Madame Butterfly's body was covered with rose petals. This matter was also published in the newspaper, you should I know it too. Among the rose petals, a hundred-yen bill was placed above Madame Butterfly's chest." "A hundred-yen bill...?" "That's right, it induced the two of them to do bad things. They discussed it for a long time. If they reported it directly to the police, they would have to hand over the hundred-yen bill. How can there be such a fool in the world? But even If you wanted to steal the hundred-yen bill, you couldn't keep the body with you all the time. So the two decided to keep the hundred-yen bill for themselves, and then discarded the body outside the backstage gate of the public hall. Because they spent a lot of time discussing, That’s why the piano case was sent to the public hall so late.” "I see. All in all, the suspect's method is to use the hundred-yen bill to lure the two of them, so as to delay the time for them to send the corpse to the public hall?" "That's it. In addition, it will allow the police to discover the car and the scene of the crime later. From these points of view, this is a scheming and cunning guy! This is really an unusual murder." Hearing Shimadzu say that, I was so excited that I was gearing up.It's been a long time since I met a guy as difficult as this murderer. "Speaking of which, have the police asked Hashiba and Sakamoto to confirm the appearance of the person involved in the murder?" "I did it last night, but I can't seem to find out why. As I said just now, Hashiba and Sakamoto couldn't see the suspect's face at all. Another tricky thing is that the suspect seems to be a tall man. Everyone in the group of male relations is taller than five feet six or seven inches. Hara Sakura's husband Satoshiro, tenor Ono, baritone Shiga, conductor Makino, and even the manager Tsuchiya, everyone They are all tall and big, so it is no wonder that there will be no result in identifying the suspect." My mood became more and more excited. "According to what you're saying, even the police think the suspect is among the opera troupe?" "That's it. Because only people from the opera troupe knew that the double bass case would be shipped to Osaka. Thinking of this, the police naturally identified the suspect as a member of the opera troupe. Considering the tallness pointed out by Hashiba and Sakamoto As far as I'm concerned, the only ones who fit are the five people mentioned just now, not to mention that from the perspective of Hara Sakura's past friendships, these five people can't be separated. It's just that no one thought that one of them would steal thing……" "Speaking of stealing, I heard that a pearl necklace worth 50,000 yen is missing. Could it be the work of Hashiba and Sakamoto?" "No, they probably didn't steal it. The police also suspected it and questioned them carefully, but the two people said the same thing. They both said that although they took the hundred-yen bill as their own, they didn't touch a single hair of the corpse. Both of them are not like the kind of bold bad guys, so what they said should be true. Ah, but, if it is said that the handbag with the necklace was pressed under Hara Sakura's body, so Hashiba and Sakamoto was completely unaware of its existence, which may be closer to the truth." "So the murderer stole the necklace? If so..." I leaned forward and said, "Then the murder scene should be found, right?" "Well, I've found it. It was also mentioned in the newspaper this morning. The scene was in one of the rooms in Akebono Fukushima's apartment where the prisoner stopped the car. This Akebono apartment seems to be a high-end residence, but unlike It’s an apartment, rather than a mixed-use building. You don’t need to filter visitors through the administrator’s room, and you can openly go upstairs at will. After investigation, the police noticed that a room on the second floor of Akebono Apartment was rented out last month However, no one has moved in. The tenant paid three months’ rent in advance, but the luggage has not been moved in. It is like an empty house. The police found it suspicious, and after investigation, they found that there was a room in the room. There were signs of a double bass being abandoned. Not only that, but there was a broken sandbag in the room, and the sand was scattered all over the floor." "Sandbags...? What about sandbags?" I frowned, and Shimadzu clapped his hands as if remembering something. "I think about it, this incident was banned by the police, so every newspaper didn't publish it. Although Hara Sakura was strangled to death, she seemed to have been hit on the head with some kind of blunt instrument before, and she fainted In the past. Moreover, Hara Sakura’s hair and jacket were covered with sand. Originally, the police didn’t know what caused it. It was only when they went to the scene that they realized it. It turned out that Hara Sakura was sand used in air defense exercises. The sandbag was hit hard on the head, and the sandbag broke, and the sand inside was scattered..., that's what happened. I heard that the sandbag is a regular item in Akebono's apartment." "So it is indeed the scene of the murder, right?" "That's right. Like what Sagara said, Hara Sakura must have arrived in Osaka on the night of the 19th on the next train, and then she was taken to Akekeno's apartment by the murderer under some pretext. I also said just now Well, anyone can freely enter and leave Akira's apartment without worrying about being noticed by others. Moreover, the room is located at the side, and the day of the incident was the birthday of the tenant in the next room, and the tenant invited many friends to celebrate with him , played the record loudly, and made a fuss, no one would notice the slightest sound. At the right time and place, the murderer stunned Hara Sakura with a sandbag and killed her. I hid in that room for one night. The next day, I stole the luggage ticket from the broker’s assistant’s pocket, went to the station to pick up the double bass case, transported it to Akebono’s apartment, stuffed the corpse in it, and then disappeared without anyone noticing. It was shipped out..., I think the sequence of the murder case should be like this." "I see. So the man who stayed in Osaka on the night of the 19th, that is, the manager Tsuchiya is a suspect?" "There is another one, the baritone Shiga Diren. In short, the murderer should be one of these two people..." Then we talked about the murder of Shoji Fujimoto in Tokyo five months ago.At this time, Master Yuri called. He was going to Akebono's apartment in Fukushima and asked me to go there too.At that time, the master added a sentence in an unusually excited voice. "The matter of Akira's apartment..., you also know about it?" "Yes. I heard about it just now. Is it the scene where Hara Sakura was killed?" "The scene...? Well, the police thought so before, but now they have discovered new clues." "A new clue...?" "That's right. Maybe this clue will bring about a big turnaround in this murder case. Mitsuki, this murder case is terrible. This is a premeditated murder case carefully designed and thought out by the prisoner. Really, really, really... "

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