Chapter 14 Chapter Thirteen Five Windows

For the sake of convenience, I have decided to quote Mr. Tsuchiya Kyozo's notes again to explain what happened in Osaka when I went to Tokyo with Master Yuri.Before leaving for Tokyo, Master Yuri borrowed the notes from Mr. Tsuchiya. While thanking Mr. Tsuchiya for his hard work, the master also implored him to continue to record everything he saw and heard in detail.Mr. Tsuchiya also kept his promise and wrote down all the big and small things that happened after we went to Tokyo.Now I am going to discard the chaff and save the essence of the contents of this notebook, leaving only the necessary parts of this novel for you to read.

Ah... my head hurts!Tonight I just want to clear my head, think about nothing, write nothing, and sleep well.When I think of Amamiya Junpei's tragic death, I feel shuddering all over my body.At this time, I just want to get myself drunk with wine, and sleep until dawn.However, a gentleman's promise is worth a thousand dollars. Since I have already made an agreement with Master Yuli, before this murder case is solved (will this murder case be solved one day?), I will record everything I see and hear in detail , so no matter what happens, I will keep my promise.What's more, now that I have discovered such a terrible thing, I am even more duty-bound.

But where should I start?What happened before today's murder? By the way, it is Chieko Sagara!When Hara Sakura was killed, Sagara played a wonderful role, and she disappeared inexplicably when the homicide happened this time.this woman... After nine o'clock this evening, Sagara was found not in the hotel.I was in my room thinking about all the things that had happened lately, and I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but I was really disturbed.Whenever I think about this murder, I feel very uneasy about the world.In addition, the police station brought a suitcase just now.Although the police department and Master Yuri did not explain much about the suitcase, judging from the report published in this morning's newspaper and the tone of the two people's conversation just now, Hara Sakura's body should be stuffed into the suitcase by the prisoner box, and then transported to Akira's apartment.And Master Yuri said that he is going to Tokyo tonight, so it seems that the suitcase must have been sent from Tokyo...In this way, how will this matter develop in the future?Where was Hara Sakura killed?

Just when I was thinking about these things, Amameiya timidly opened the door and came in... "Mr. Tsuchiya, do you know where Miss Sagara is?" "Sagara? What do you want from her?" "It's nothing, it's just that Mr. Police Department came again just now and said that he wanted to ask Ms. Sagara something. I can't find her anywhere." "Is the police department here again?" "yes." "But, it's impossible for Sagara to disappear. There are criminal police guarding the hotel inside and out." "Yes, but I've been looking for her in the hotel for a long time, but I haven't seen her anywhere."

I stuttered and stood up. "Anyway, let's go downstairs first." My room is on the fourth floor.When I went down the stairs, I saw Police Department Asahara standing in front of the counter with a distressed expression on his face. "I heard Sagara disappeared?" "Well, I can't find her anywhere." "Is there anything you can do with Sagara?" "It's nothing, it's not something important. It's just that her going out without authorization will cause trouble for our police..." The voice of the police department sounded like suppressed anger.

"Going out without permission...? But, the hotel is guarded by criminal police inside and out, how can she get out? Didn't anyone see Sagara leave the hotel?" "No. No women go out at all after dark." Apart from our former Sakura Opera Troupe, there are many other guests staying in this N Hotel.No matter how much the police asked, it was impossible to restrict all residents from going out, so ordinary guests who had nothing to do with the opera troupe could still come in and out freely.However, the police sent criminal policemen to guard the front and back doors, and they would take a close look at anyone who went out. If a group of opera troupes tried to sneak out pretending to be ordinary guests, they would be caught immediately.

"In this case, she should be in the hotel. Let's look for it again?" "I have asked the criminal police and people from the hotel to look for it just now." "Let's help find it too. Yu Gong, you go find it too!" "But where to find it?" "Maybe she's chatting in someone's room. Is everyone in the room?" "Yes, I think it should be..." "Then, go and ask me one by one! If you find Sagara, tell her to come downstairs immediately." "Thank you for your hard work. Then, I will wait for her in the manager's office. Please tell her for me."

The Police Department's voice sounded slightly calmer. After I separated from Amamiya, I went to the restaurant in the basement alone, but Chieko Sagara was not in the restaurant either.Instead, I saw double bass player Kawada and trombonist Hasumi drinking here. "It just happened to meet you, have you seen Sagara?" "Sagara? Didn't see it." Double bass player Kawada is a very difficult guy with a nonchalant look. "Mr. Tsuchiya, how long are we going to be locked up in this restaurant! If we continue to be bored like this, we will almost grow mushrooms."

Trombonist Hasumi complained. "You ask me, who do I ask?" "Mr. Tsuchiya, when will I return my double bass? I'm worried about leaving it to the police. What if they accidentally scratch my violin?" "You ask me, who do I ask! You wouldn't ask the police department!" After leaving the restaurant, I decided to check from the third floor to the fourth floor one by one, because the members of the opera troupe lived on the third and fourth floors respectively, and no one lived on the fifth floor.And this hotel is a five-story building. We only rented a room on the fifth floor to store clothes and props. It should be impossible for Sagara to go to that room, right?

Sagara is nowhere to be seen.Except for Shiga and Makino who were not in the room, almost everyone else stayed in their room. The rooms of Mr. Satoshiro and Ono are on the third floor.I first went to Mr. Satoshiro's room and asked him if he had seen Sagara. Mr. Satoshiro, who was about to go to bed, asked me inexplicably: "What's wrong? Amamiya also came to ask just now, did something happen?" Then I went to Ono's room.Ono's face was pale, walking up and down the room as if he was insomnia.He said, "Miss Sagara? I didn't see it. Amamiya also came to look for her just now."

I felt more and more restless and confused.It's no wonder that the police department is in a bad mood. Since the criminal policeman in charge of guarding is sure that Sagara will never leave, she must still be in this hotel.The problem is that she can't be found anywhere in the restaurant. What is going on? I continued to check the room on the fourth floor, but there was still no sign of Sagara.But among the rooms on the fourth floor, there was only one that I didn't check.In retrospect, I realized that there was a lot going on in that room, but how could I have expected that at the time?What I didn't check was the room that double bassist Kawada and trombonist Hasumi shared.At that time, I thought, since I saw them drinking in the underground restaurant just now, there should be no one in the room.I just skipped that room.If I had opened their door and peeked in... Leaving that aside, I still didn't find Sagara in the end.I went downstairs again, to the manager's office where the police department was waiting.Just as I was about to open the door to my office, I heard something. "Kat clang!" It's the sound of glass breaking.It sounded like it was coming from the upstairs of the hotel... When I was thinking this in my heart, there was another "boom!" in my ear.I opened the door of the office and saw that the police department just opened the window to look out. He must have heard this sound before I did. Let me first explain the location of the manager's office.This office is located on the side of the hotel, and about a distance from the window is the tall K Trust Company.That is to say, from the window of this office, there is a wide path between the restaurant and the K trust company.The Asahara Police Department, who had been looking at both ends of the path, was suddenly startled and shrank back.He froze for a moment and then turned around, his eyes meeting mine. "Ah! Mr. Tsuchiya, someone fell!" As soon as the Asahara police department finished speaking, they immediately jumped out of the window.Surprised, I also walked to the window, followed the police department and jumped out of the window. Turn right from this path to the main road in front of the hotel, and turn left to the Yodo River.I saw the police station going to the left, so I followed in that direction. The police department immediately walked to the back of the hotel, bent down to light a match, and didn't know what they were looking at.I immediately ran after him, watching the road from behind the police station.The match that the police department had just lit went out quickly, so I couldn't see very well, but there was indeed a humanoid object lying on the ground vaguely. The police department stood up reflexively and looked up at the hotel.The path was sandwiched between tall buildings on both sides. The entire path was pitch black, and the only source of light came from a room on the fourth floor of the hotel, with light shining through the open windows.Someone is looking down from that window. "Who? Who's there..." "It's me! What happened?" "Who are you? This voice...?" "It's Makino. Makino Kenzo who directed..." "Oh, so it's Mr. Makino, is that your room?" "No, this is not my room." "Then whose room is it?" Makino glanced back at the room, then turned down and said to us. "This seems to be the room of Kawada and Hasumi." "Then the two of them are not in the room?" "Well, they're not here." "Kawada and Hasumi are drinking in the restaurant." I interrupted and added. "Mr. Makino, why are you in that room?" The questioning method of the police department seemed a bit sharp. "Me...? Me? I happened to pass outside this room just now, but the sound of glass breaking suddenly came from the room. I was startled, so I opened the door and came in to have a look." "Uh, uh. What happened?" "When I entered the room, the lights inside were off, and it was pitch black. When I turned on the light, I found the windows were open and swayed from side to side by the wind. Not only that, but the glass on the windows was also broken. That's why I'm looking down to see what's going on. Mr. Police Department, what happened?" In the dimness, looking down from the fourth floor, it seemed that the road could not be seen.The police department groaned, looked down one by one from the high-rise windows of the hotel again, and asked through gritted teeth. "Mr. Makino, then you opened the door immediately after hearing the sound of glass breaking?" "Immediately...? Oh, yes, I opened the door immediately." "There was no light in the room at that time. When you turned on the light, was there no one in the room?" "Yes, not a single one." "Is it possible that the moment you open the door and flip the light switch... when the room is still dark, someone slips past you?" Makino thought for a while. "I don't think that's possible. You know the light switch is to the right of the door, so I was standing in the middle of the door when the light was turned on." "Then you immediately run to the window and look down. Is it possible that someone slipped out behind you while you were standing there looking down...?" Makino thought about it again. "I don't know, but I can't accept that. I haven't thought about the possibility at all. If someone is hiding in this room, I can't see him when I turn on the light, so I think this hypothesis unlikely to be established.” "Why is it impossible? Since the other party has already hidden, how can you find it?" Makino looked back into the room again. "Mr. Police Department, you say that because you don't know the interior of this room. Please come here and see for yourself. There is no place to hide in the room, at most it's just under the bed..." "Under the bed? So, can I trouble you to check under the bed?" "Mr. Police Department, what's the matter..." Makino complained and complained, and in the middle of speaking, he disappeared from the window. When the police department and Makino asked and answered, I felt an indescribable uneasiness.Because I gradually understood why the police department was stalking Makino. Affected by gravity, objects will fall in a straight line, so if the person lying on the ground did not fall from one of the five windows in a row directly above, it would be the roof.Leaving aside the roof, among the five windows, except for the window on the fourth floor, the windows on the other four floors are all tightly closed.Of course, I haven't carefully investigated the other four windows, and I don't dare to conclude that they must all be airtight, but the police department will target the investigation target on the currently open windows on the fourth floor, and there is no reason to bury them. Not long after, Makino poked his head out of the window. "Mr. Police Department, there is no one here. Besides, the beds here are very low, and it is impossible for people to hide under them. But then again, what happened?" "It's nothing, you'll find out in a while. Anyway, please stay there and don't let anyone in." The other tenants probably heard our conversation, the lights in each room were turned on, the windows were opened one after another, and heads of people poked out from each window to look down.Mr. Ono and Hara Satoshiro on the third floor, the baritone Shiga flute player on the fourth floor, and other members of the opera troupe also looked out from the windows.Everyone was silent, looking down at the dark road. But it was unbelievable that, except for the window where Makino poked his head out, no one opened the entire row of windows from the first floor to the fifth floor. "Ah, over there... isn't Mr. Yuan looking down from the third floor?" "Well, it's me. Mr. Police Department, what happened?" Mr. Satoshiro's voice sounded sleepy. "No, it's nothing... Whose room is the room on your right? No, it's not over there. From your point of view, it should be the room on your left." "Oh, the one at the back. That's Sagara's room." Oh shit!I heard the voice of the police department stunned. "Mr. Makino, Mr. Makino." "Well, what's the matter?" "Do you know whose room is directly above the room you're in now?" "Oh, I know that." I interrupted. "Whose room is that?" "That's an empty room. No, we rented that room, so it can't be considered an empty room, but we rented that room to store clothes and props." Oh shit!The police department cursed again under his breath. The hotel manager arrived in a panic at this time, and the police quickly turned around and said to the manager: "You came just in time. No one has opened the windows of the two rooms on the second floor and the first floor. Is there no one living there?" "What happened? The room on the second floor is indeed unoccupied, and the room on the first floor is being used by us as a storage room." Oh shit!At this time, the police department seemed to curse again in a low voice.I also gradually understood the reason for the police department's anxiety.The row of five vertical windows, from top to bottom, is the room where clothes and props are stacked, the room shared by Kawada and Hasumi, the room of Sagara Chieko, the empty room and the storage room.The police department is trying to find out the possibility that other rooms besides the room on the fourth floor may be involved. "Mr. Police Department, what happened here...?" Regarding the question raised by the manager, the police department just shook his head, lit a match, and bent down to inspect the road at his feet.It's no wonder that the manager gasped at this moment. There was a man lying on the ground in an unnatural position, with a soft coat covering his face. The lights went out.The police ignited another one, then pulled the coat away.I can't help but gasp.It was Junpei Amamiya who fell on the ground. "Did he fall from the window... and die?" The police department shook his head, and hurriedly lit another match to illuminate the area around Yugong's throat.As soon as I saw his throat, I took another deep breath.There are clearly fingerprints on his throat... "He was strangled before he was pushed out of the window." The lights went out.I was horrified to be in the darkness.

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