Chapter 34 Section 9

Friday, October 27th.The two detectives, Sayama and Shindo, sat side by side on the non-smoking seat of the Shinkansen Hikari, and their destination was Nagoya. "It's really a strange idea to transport the corpse by relay. If you think that this is done to create an alibi, the reason for transporting the corpse all the way from Osaka to Tokyo makes sense." Shindo spread out The road map says, and the Atsugi Interchange is circled in red pastel. "However, this peculiar idea is still in the wind." Sayama leaned his elbows on the armrest and held his chin. "If you want to transport the corpse from Osaka to Atsugi, even if you transport the corpse by relay, it will not be of any great benefit to the prisoner. I tried to check the alibi of the relevant person again, but I couldn't find anyone who left such a sign."

"The only possibility is Suenaga who was in Nagoya that day." "Oh, that's true, but having said that, Suenaga has an alibi, which is so perfect that it's hateful. I also plan to meet the witnesses, but the case probably won't be reversed." "But the reason why Mr. Sayama asked to go to Nagoya is because he is suspicious of Mr. Sueyong, right? You also seem to seek the assistance of the Aichi Prefecture police, don't you?" "You don't have to think about it too much. Because if you insist on the corpse relay theory, if you use the elimination method, only the man will be left. So depending on the situation, you may have to give up the relay theory. But Sue Yong happened to be in Nagoya that day, really. It's unpleasant. Besides, I met that man yesterday, and I felt something that should not be ignored. But that being said, I'm just taking advantage of your business trip this time."

Shindo's business trip was to visit Nishina Naoki's hometown. Until the age of fifteen, Naoki lived in his mother's hometown in Toyohashi. "But having said that, that blue blanket is really cool. That makes it impossible for the director to completely deny the relay theory." "Yeah, that was an unexpected gain." There was a new report from the forensics class last night.The content of the report pointed out that several blue wool fibers were found in the suit jacket worn by Naoki Nishina.The same wool fiber has already appeared in the trunk of Hashimoto's car.So the corpse wrapped in the blue blanket recited the book for the prisoner to transport the corpse in Hashimoto's car.It was also for this reason that Taniguchi reluctantly agreed to this business trip.When I arrived in Nagoya, I went to the Nakamura Police Station next to Nagoya Station. After greeting the chief, I met a detective named Miyata.The short, kind-faced Miyata is the one who investigates the matter Sayama commissioned.

"About the car rental issue, I investigated the car rental companies near Nagoya Station, but there was no customer named Takuya Suenaga." Miyata said clearly. "Sure enough." Sayama nodded, "Did you investigate those seven people for me?" "The investigation is done. It's not a troublesome job. I just have to ask them themselves. Is that all right?" "Well, yes." Sayama said, "Then, how about it?" "Among the seven people, six people have cars. There are two Toyota Mark IIs, Carinaed...well, they are all good cars. In short, all six people deny it. On the night of the murder, none of them seemed to have borrowed the car."

"That's it... Oh, sorry to trouble you." Sayama bowed his head in thanks. As soon as he left the Nakamura Office, Shindo immediately asked Sayama, "Who are those seven people?" "Takuya Suenaga's high school and college classmates, I'm going to come to the graduate list, and from it, only those who live in Nagoya now." "Haha, you think Sue Yong might borrow a car from his former best friend." "Yeah. After transporting the body to Atsugi, we have to go back to Nagoya. In this case, we have to switch trains in Nagoya no matter what."

"He doesn't seem to have rented a car?" "It seems so, but I thought it was impossible for the prisoner to rent a car." This time the prisoner could not have deliberately chosen the means of transportation that left the evidence. "Is it impossible to switch the car in Tokyo and drive that car to Nagoya on the day of the business trip?" Xintang asked. "But he was with someone from the Tokyo sales office of the partner company in the morning. He must have taken the Shinkansen." "How about driving the car to Nagoya first?" "Who would lend him the car for so long?"

"How about driving your own car? Does Suyong have a car?" "Yes. He drives the MARK II, a two-seater car with a very narrow rear compartment, which can only hold golf bags at most." Xintang breathed a sigh of relief and made a gesture of raising his hands in surrender. The two then went to the Nagoya Central Hotel, and found the counter staff to confirm the accommodation situation of Suenaga that day.There was no contradiction between the hotel's records and Sue Yong's confession, and it was even clearly recorded that Sue Yong asked the front desk to wake him up at seven o'clock in the morning.

"Of course." Sayama said as he walked out of the hotel, "If an alibi is to be produced, it is impossible for the prisoner to make mistakes in such a basic small place." "So the next place we're going to end up the same way?" "I'm afraid so, but I have to go." The next planned location for them to go is Naishi Koki in Chikusa-ku. After lunch in the underground shopping mall in Nagoya, the two took the subway, got off at Chikusa Station, and then took a taxi to Meixi Koki, which is five minutes away.Just tell the driver the name of the company, and the driver will know the location, so it should be a well-known company in the local area.

After reporting their names at the counter, the counter staff led the two of them to the reception room of the product exhibition room called the PR room. A row of products displayed against the wall are probably products that this company is proud of, but Sayama has no idea how these devices work and what they do.Logic analyzers, transient recorders—he had no idea what those were. After about five minutes, the other party appeared.A thin, nearly forty-year-old man in a dark blue suit.On the business card he handed over, it was written on the business section manager Yutaka Okumura.Sayama had called beforehand to ask, and the man said that he had been with Sueyong all the time.

"You are here because of the murder of MM Heavy Industries, right? The police have asked me about Mr. Sueyong several times. Are you suspicious of him?" Okumura asked Sayama straight to the point. Sayama hastily waved his hand to deny it, and still kept smiling. "It's not like that, it's just that he was out of the company that day, so we had to check multiple times." "Haha, that's how it is. It's the same feeling when the police handle cases in TV dramas." Okumura readily accepted Sayama's statement. Sayama decided to cut to the chase.First, start by confirming Sue Yong's alibi.Here, like the hotel, there is no contradiction with Sue Yong's confession.Okumura seemed to be with him until about ten o'clock in the evening.

"I finished dinner around ten o'clock, it's a bit late." Xintang said. "Unknowingly, it got very late. We originally planned to end the meeting earlier, but Mr. Sueyong asked a lot of questions, so the time was delayed." "Oh? Mr. Sueyong is stalling for time?" After speaking, Shindou glanced at Sayama.His eyes said: Is Su Yong planning to do something? "Mr. Sueyong, during the meal, did you pay attention to the time? Like looking at your watch frequently, or looking restless?" Sayama asked. "I didn't notice that," Okumura said with an expression recalling the scene at the time. "After the meal, I proposed to take Mr. Sueyong to experience the nightlife in Nagoya, but he insisted on refusing, which impressed me deeply. He said he wanted to sort out the data earlier, We didn’t force him to invite him. But I thought at the time, it shouldn’t take much time to sort out the data.” "That's right. So, after dinner, Mr. Suenaga hurried back to the hotel, right?" It's not difficult to feel what Suenaga wants to do, but what can he do after ten o'clock? "Well, we interpreted this as an excuse to refuse the banquet. Because once this kind of invitation is accepted, the business cannot be too ruthless. In fact, this is also our purpose. But MM Heavy Industries is very concerned about this time Regarding the procurement case, they probably had no intention of adopting our company's products from the very beginning. They should have just come to observe our strength first." "Does this kind of thing happen often?" Xintang asked. "Yeah, I definitely do this before doing business with a new company. But this time Mr. Sueyong's inspection is very sincere, after all, it took him two days. Frankly speaking, we didn't expect him to inspect our company so seriously. " After finishing speaking, Okumura narrowed his eyes. It took two days... ah- Is it possible that Suenaga has to do that based on personal reasons?But that might be too much thinking. After leaving Meisai Koki and returning to Nagoya, transfer to the Nagoya train to Toyohashi.The purpose of doing this is to visit the original destination - Nishina Naoki's hometown.The two of them took a limited express train with all reserved seats, so they were able to sit on spacious and comfortable seats. "Has the corpse relay theory been overturned?" Sayama said while massaging his shoulder. "But Suenaga is very suspicious." Shindo said, "I always feel that he went to Nagoya on a business trip for something." "I feel the same way, probably to create an alibi." "Yeah, it should be to create an alibi. But no matter how he thinks about it, he can't kill Nishina." Xintang folded his hands, twisted his knuckles, and made a "beep, peel, peel" sound.This is his habitual action when the investigation encounters a bottleneck and he feels anxious. "I'm thinking about one thing..." As soon as Sayama opened his mouth, Shindo turned his face to him in surprise. "Is it possible that Su Yong is also one of the accomplices?" "what?" "This is an assumption, that is, the main culprit is someone else, and Suenaga and Hashimoto are just accomplices in moving the corpse." "Wait a minute, do you mean this? It was someone other than them who killed Nishina, and Suenaga just carried the body to Atsugi, and Hashimoto was in charge of the part after Atsugi—" "That's right. But Suenaga, who was in Nagoya, couldn't have gone to Osaka to carry the corpse into the car. Could the main culprit be transporting the corpse to Nagoya after killing Nishina in Osaka? Osaka, Nagoya, Atsugi, Tokyo— Could it be that the three of them cooperated to move the corpse by relay?" At this point, Sayama found that Shindo was stunned, so he smiled wryly. "I know it's very fanciful. So I haven't been able to tell anyone. After all, I don't have any evidence. Maybe it's because I care about Sue Yong very much, and I subconsciously have this fantasy in order to forcefully turn that man into a prisoner." "No, what you said is somewhat possible." Xintang looked at Sayama with sincere eyes, "This is very interesting. I am reluctant to give up this idea. In this way, who will be the main culprit?" "That's right, the principal culprit must be found." At this time, Xintang snapped his fingers. "Yasuko. How is Amamiya Yasuko?" "I've thought about that too," Sayama said.Ever since Yasuko died, he had been thinking about it. "But I guess there's no way a woman can do the job. Let alone when she's pregnant." "Yes, it makes sense." Xintang groaned, and then said: "After what you said, the father of the child in Kangzi's womb is still a mystery. Maybe that man is the main culprit." "Very likely." Sayama nodded vigorously. "By the way, let's sort out Naoki's hometown first, that is, Naoki's mother's hometown." "Yes. Please wait a moment." Shindo took out the notepad from the pocket of his suit jacket, and opened the page with the post-it note. "Her name is Mitsui. Naoki's mother's name is Fumiko. Fumiko's father runs a company called Mitsui Manufacturing Works with her siblings." "What company is that?" "For a metal processing company, the main customer is MM Heavy Industries Shizuoka Plant." "Oh..." Sayama sat up a little bit, thinking: there is also a MM here? "It is said that it is the main customer, but in fact almost all the work seems to come from MM Heavy Industries. The operating situation is not very ideal, because the survival competition with the industry has intensified. But from a certain period of time, the light well factory suddenly recovered from the decline." "You don't have to use dramatic terms, because Fumiko Mitsui married into the Nishina family, right?" "That's right, Fumiko used to work as an administrator at the Shizuoka factory. At that time, Toshiki Nishina was transferred between various departments and fell in love with her at first sight. It was a bit like a Cinderella plot. After the marriage was finalized, MM Heavy Industries made a big deal about Mitsui Manufacturing. The factory's orders suddenly increased in a large amount, and the Guangjing family happily expanded the factory building." "It seems that everything is vivid in my mind." Sayama couldn't help smiling as he imagined a group of middle-aged men in high spirits. "But the good times only lasted for more than a year. After Fumiko brought Naoki back to her natal home, the two divorced soon." "What was the reason for the divorce?" "It seems that Toshiki Nishina is playing with women outside. This kind of thing often happens. The two decided to divorce immediately, but the dispute is about the children. Fumiko seems to say that she does not want alimony and child support, but she has to raise the children herself. The result is as she said. May the child belong to her, and it seems that Minshu paid her some alimony and parenting money to bring this matter to an end." "So, did the matter come to a successful conclusion?" "No." Xintang turned the page and cleared his throat. "Two years after the two divorced, the Mitsui Manufacturing Plant closed down. I don't need to say the reason, you know it. Because MM Heavy Industries stopped placing orders, probably because of Nishina Toshita's instructions. As a result, the loan for expanding the plant collapsed It’s ironic that the company’s finances have been compromised.” "Yeah, the tragedy of small business... ah." Sayama thought: But having said that, to attack his ex-wife's hometown, Toshiki Nishina is too insidious.Perhaps it was because he was young at the time and didn't know how to suppress his emotions. It takes about 50 minutes to drive from Nagoya to Toyohashi. Toyohashi Station is the hub of Nagoya Railway and JR, and it is a relatively large station. The two stopped a taxi in front of the station and told the driver Nishina Naoki's hometown address. "Is it Minatomachi? That's very close." The driver responded kindly. As the driver said, we arrived in Minatomachi within a few minutes.If you know the way, you probably can't walk too far.Sayama and the others got off the taxi at an appropriate place and walked along the house number. "It seems to be here." The two stopped in front of an old wooden house, and Xintang said while looking at the door plate. This is an elegant two-story building, and a courtyard of one and a half pings can be seen through the wall.Having said that, the lawn doesn't look like it has been mowed and left to grow. Sayama glanced at the name tag.The surname written on it is not Mitsui. "A few years after Naoki was adopted to Tokyo, Fumiko's father also passed away, and the house was sold to someone else," Shindo said. "That is to say, Naoki has no hometown to go back to?" "Yes, Fumiko Mitsui's younger sister's in-law's house is just ahead. I heard that Naoki often showed his face there a while ago." "Yeah, she's Naoki's aunt." "I heard that her name is Bo Jiang, and now her surname is Shanzhong." After walking for two or three minutes, I saw a building with a signboard for wood processing in the mountains.The concrete walls of the two-story building were cracked and looked very old.There's a small garage next to the building with an old van and a pickup parked side by side, the van is fine, the pickup doesn't feel like it's moving at all. "This is the former office, there should be a new building nearby..." Going further, a building with brand new tiles appeared in front of you.The signboard of Yamanaka wood processing KK is also shining. Unlike the Mitsui family, this family can be said to be a successful business.Next to the four-story building, there was a house that seemed to have been recently rebuilt, and the name plate said Yamanaka Tsuguo. "It's really magnificent, it should be 100 ping, no, it should be more than 100 ping. The house is so big that people can't grasp the actual ping." Xintang praised again and again, and pressed the button of the intercom. Namanaka Yamanaka is tall and slender; he is probably in his fifties, but his skin is young, he doesn't look like he is in his fifties.She is wearing a red sweater, which doesn't make people feel fancy.As soon as she found out the purpose of the detectives' visit, she took them to the living room without hesitation, and then ordered the maid to invite her husband. "My sister is like sacrificing herself for the Mitsui family." She told the detectives: "My sister doesn't love Mr. Nishina. But my father and uncles force her to marry him. My sister said that life in the Nishina family is easy. It was like a nightmare, maybe it was my sister who expressed this feeling, and Mr. Nishina immediately changed his mind about my sister." "So they divorced right away?" Sayama said as he reached for his teacup, smelling the aroma of tea. "Before my sister decided to divorce, she took Naoki back to her natal family. Because she didn't want Mr. Nishina to take away the child. As soon as Mr. Nishina knew that my sister had given birth to a boy, he deliberately tried to kick my sister back to the light well house." "Because there is a successor, so she is useless, right?" Hearing Sayama's description, Nami smiled lightly. "Looks like a woman from the Meiji era, right?" "But Mr. Naoki was raised by Mrs. Fumiko, right?" "Yes, there was a lot of trouble at that time. The Nishina family even threatened with words. Our relatives came to the house and asked my sister to hand over Naoki to the Nishina family...but my sister did not give in." Bo Jiang continued: "I My sister is strong." "But in the end, the Guangjing Factory was cornered." Bo Jiang lowered his eyes and nodded. "Life was miserable at the time. People came to collect debts every day... My relatives insisted that everything was to blame for my sister. My sister's alimony from Nishina's family was also used up all at once." Sayama sighed, thinking: So, this family is really miserable. "After that, how did you live?" "My elder sister went out to work. The house was not sold, and life was barely going on. Naoki's childcare expenses were remitted in every month. At that time, my in-law's business had just started, and I had no spare time to help my mother's family." When Bo Jiang said this, the door of the living room opened, and an obese man appeared.He is probably Po Jiang's husband.Maybe it's because of walking around energetically that sweat is on the forehead this season. After introducing himself, Sayama brought up the subject of Naoki. "He is a serious and good boy, with a bit too good personality. He often comes to my house to play. I have two younger sons at home. For him, this is the only place where he can relax." Maybe he was born big Voice, the voice of the mountain is very loud. "How does Mr. Naoki feel about the Nishina family?" Sayama asked. "He hates Mr. Nishina very much." Yamanaka said, "Fumiko is reluctant to say it, but relatives often complained about Naoki as a child, and hatred inevitably took root in his heart." Sayama seemed to understand Naoki's childhood: the old home, the exhausted mother—— "But there are not only negative things," Bo Jiang said echoingly: "After he was adopted to Tokyo, he often came here to play. After he graduated from university, he will help us work." "Oh? Help with work." "It's just a little help to move some goods." Yamanaka said: "Our family has a van that is hardly used at ordinary times, and it seems to be dedicated to Naoki." "Oh, yes," Xintang interjected, "On our way here, we saw two cars parked in the garage of an old building." "That's that, that's that." Yamanaka grinned, "He will use that as a means of transportation when he comes here now. But that...he won't need it anymore." Madam pressed the corners of her eyes.