Chapter 20 chapter eight

"It's so interesting!" After the phone call, Totsukawa had a smile on his face. So he immediately ordered Nishimoto and Japan to investigate the Miyako couple. Miyako's husband, Ogata Hiroshi, started his own business after resigning. "He has a house in the suburbs of Urawa City, Saitama Prefecture. After retiring from his job, he started a business and opened a tea shop in the city, but because he was hospitalized due to illness, Miyako had to stay with him in bed, so the shop closed down." Nishimoto reported. road. "Not in Tokyo?" Totsukawa was a little surprised.

Since Miyako came to an office near Shinjuku and asked Hashimoto to investigate her sister, she subjectively thought that she should live in Tokyo. "The couple often work in the store, and her younger sister often comes to help during the break. Because the two sisters are very similar, people in that area often say 'a pair of sisters'." "Which hospital does Miyako's husband live in?" "Fuji Sanatorium in West Izu." Kusaka showed Totsukawa his notebook. Totsukawa felt suspicious again: Why did he go to West Izu so far away? So he issued an order to Nishimoto and the others to further investigate Miyako's situation in detail.And he himself decided to go to West Izu to have a look.

In order to save time, after getting off the Shinkansen train in Mishima, he immediately took a taxi to West Izu. It is more accurate to say it is a sanatorium rather than a hospital.When Totsukawa came to this building near Mitsuhama, the first thing he felt was that he could see Mount Fuji clearly from here. Totsukawa met the director named Asai. "Do you have a person named Ogata here?" He asked straight to the point. "Ah, yes. His body has recovered, but his memory has not recovered, what a trouble!" Asai replied. "Memory? What disease does he have? Isn't it a heart attack?"

"No! It was an accident." "ACCIDENT?" "He inhaled excessive car exhaust fumes while repairing a car in his home garage and fell into a coma. Although his body returned to normal, the memory loss caused by the lack of oxygen in the brain has not recovered for a while. He came here for recovery. " Asai explained. "Can memory be restored?" "Oh, his wife knows that very well. He just can't remember things before and after the accident, and he has no memory of recent events, which is medically called 'recent memory loss'. He doesn't know why. Will come here."

what 's wrong?Totsukawa was suspicious. He glanced into the ward, Ogata was in a wheelchair, and his wife, Miyako, was talking to him gently like a child. "You have lived here for a week, how beautiful Mount Fuji you can see here!" While talking, Miyako pushed Ogata into the corridor. Totsukawa took this opportunity to ask the doctor in charge of Ogata's rehabilitation about Miyako. Young Dr. Kuraki said to him, "She often comes to see her husband. She really does serve her husband with all her heart!" "Then you know about car exhaust gas poisoning?"

"Of course." "Has a younger sister named Yumi Inobe come to see him?" Totsukawa asked again. "No, apart from his wife, no other woman has visited him." To be on the safe side, Totsukawa asked other nurses at the nurse station, but the answer was the same.They all admired his wife's sacrifice for him, and also said that they never saw other women to visit him. After Yumi fell in love, why didn't even her brother-in-law come to see her? But…… Another question mark was drawn in Totsukawa's mind. After breaking up with her lover, Yumi chose to die. Didn't she often go to her sister's shop to help out on company holidays?

Although I was broken in love, my brother-in-law had an accident and was hospitalized, so it would be unreasonable not to visit my brother-in-law with my sister, right?These doubts gradually concentrated on Miyako. Totsukawa decided to return to Tokyo immediately.Because he thinks that Miyako has already prepared her speech: her sister is broken in love, she is not in the mood to see her brother-in-law, etc. If Miyako said that, Totsukawa had no reason to refute.Because he has no clue about Miyako's husband and her dead sister, Yumi. Back in Tokyo, Nishimoto and the others reported the new situation to him.

"Yumi Inobe asked the company for leave to go to Shirahama on September 5, right?" Nishimoto asked. "Yes!" "But the company said that's not the case." "Didn't you ask for leave?" "It was said that she hadn't gone to work since August 25, and later wrote a letter saying that she was not feeling well and asked to take a few days off. Because of the different fonts, the company thought it might be written by her sister." "Didn't go to work ten days ago?" "Eleven days ago to be exact," said Nishimoto.

Kusaka then added: "There is another strange thing. Miyako's husband was sent to the hospital by ambulance at around 11:00 p.m. on August 24; her sister has not been to the company since the next day." "This is interesting!" "Miyako said that her husband was poisoned by inhaling exhaust gas while repairing the car. After rescue, his life was saved, but his legs were paralyzed and his memory was failing. After being introduced, he was admitted to a nursing home in Nishiizu." "Is there any evidence of exhaust gas poisoning when repairing cars?" Totsukawa asked.

"Yumi's apartment is in Mejiro. Shimizu and Tanaka are investigating." Nishimoto replied. After a while, Shimizu and Tanaka came back. "Yumi Inobe has not been in her apartment since August 25," Shimizu reported. "How do you know?" "The management staff of the apartment said that her newspaper box was full of newspapers, and also said that the mailed things were returned because she was absent. It is not certain whether she will be absent since the 25th, but Yumi's neighbors also said that she has never been here since the 25th. It was only a few days ago that I noticed that she hadn't come back."

"Then where has she been all this time?" "Could it be that she committed suicide by throwing herself into the sea in Shirahama on August 25?" Tanaka said. "Impossible. The body proves that the time of her death was September 8." "Could the corpse belong to another person? The drowned are all swollen due to the soaking in water, so they won't be able to tell the difference, right?" "No, it was Mei herself who checked the fingerprints of the deceased." "Or, before she went to Shirahama, she went to other places for a 'sad journey'? For example, Hokkaido and Kyushu." "But isn't it a bit confusing to travel for such a long time?" "If it's strange, it's a little suspicious, maybe it's a coincidence: Miyako's husband was poisoned and sent to the hospital on the night of August 24, and Yumi Inobe didn't go to work the next day, and later died in Shirahama. Maybe it was Accidentally, but it's too coincidental." Totsukawa said.