Chapter 39 Section 5

After Sayama left MM Heavy Industries, he contacted the investigation headquarters and briefly explained the content of the conversation with the female employee who went to the musical with Yasuko.Taniguchi's impression is that although this is a piece of evidence to doubt the suicide theory, it cannot be said to be conclusive testimony, and Sayama also feels the same. "Then you can meet Xintang later, he is heading to Ikebukuro now." "Ikebukuro? What happened?" "Nishina Naoki's college friend worked in Ikebukuro. I learned from the schedule in Naoki's office that he met that friend before he was killed."

"Where is Ikebukuro?" "That man works in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. I will contact Shindo later and ask him to meet you. Where is it convenient to meet?" Sayama thought for a while, and then replied: "In front of Tokyu Hands Department Store." Because he remembered his wife asked him to buy a flower pot. When Sayama arrived, he found Shindo standing with a Tokyu Hands paper bag.Sayama stepped forward and called out to him.A slightly tired smile appeared on the face of the senior detective. "What did you buy?" Sayama said, pointing to the paper bag.

"The special hinge for the cabinet, the wardrobe door is broken." "How about buying a new one?" "The salary is meager, where does that kind of money come from?" "Single nobles don't say such embarrassing things. By the way, I also want to buy things. Which floor is the flowerpot on?" Sayama tried to enter the building, but Shindo grabbed his arm. "I'm running out of time, please go back and buy it again." The place where I met the other party was the coffee shop located in the underground mall of Sun City. The two sat in the innermost seats and looked towards the door.

"This morning is really bad luck." Shindo wiped his face with a towel, and then said, "Another stationery store contacted the Ogikubo Department. Before it was said that it was the murder case, a man bought the same pen. Unfortunately, there was no If someone is free, I just happened to be there and I have to investigate." "That's really a back." "Damn bad luck. As for the pen, we've established that the man with the gold-rimmed spectacles bought it at the stationer's." "Then, what happened?" "Well. The other party is indeed not talking nonsense. The man appeared at 8:00 am on the day the package was delivered, and the pen was of the same style. However, the man did not buy blue ink, and the place was..."

"where?" "The student town of Hachioji." Sayama couldn't help laughing. If it was a stationery store in Student Street, there would probably be many customers who would buy pens. "What kind of guest did the other party say?" "Say it was a man wearing a hard hat, because there are many students going to school on motorcycles in that area." "Yes……" Hearing the helmet, Sayama suppressed his smile.Did the prisoner cover his face on purpose?However, the other party did not buy blue ink. When thinking of this, a man walked into the store; a man in a gray shirt with slightly foreign features.From the way he looked around the store, the two realized that he seemed to be Naoki's friend.Xintang got up to call him, and sure enough he was right.

The man's name is Takashi Kanai, and he works for the Energy Research Institute directly under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, located in this building. "Nishina is a loyal and honest man, and he doesn't have many friends. But he is not timid. When he wants to do something, he will not discuss it with anyone, and he will let it go without hesitation. This is the kind of person he is." This is Kanai's comment to Naoki. The two are studying in the same college, and the research room is next door, so they seem to have a close relationship. "You seem to be seeing each other often recently, don't you?" Xintang asked.

"Yes. But we're busy with each other, so it's not that often. I got close to him in the following season." "season?" "Yes. We often go skiing together. I'm somewhat confident in skiing, and he's good at skiing. Because this sport is not fun to go together unless you are at a similar level. Let's go to Hokkaido together. By the way, I mentioned this matter when we met for the last time." Having said this, a regretful expression suddenly appeared on Jin Jing's face.Maybe it reminds me of the happy times spent with good friends. "I heard that the last time you met was the Saturday before Mr. Nishina's death?" Xintang confirmed.

"Yes. We'd like to discuss specific dates." "Was it only about skiing?" "Of course there was a little chat, but that's what we met for." "So, how are your ski dates going?" Sayama asked. "He's not sure yet, so I'll wait until his scheduled itinerary is confirmed. His title is worthy of being the head of the development and planning department, and he seems to be very busy." Kanai didn't seem to know from Naoki's mouth his status in the company.In fact, he shouldn't be so busy that he can't even schedule a ski date.

"Oh, that's right..." Kanai said as if remembering something: "Nishina stayed at the Osaka Green Hotel in Osaka, right? Actually, I called that hotel the night he was killed." "Call?" Xintang and Sayama said in unison.The waitress at the coffee shop gave them a surprised look. "What time is it?" Xintang asked. "It should be," Jin Jing looked up slightly, "about ten o'clock. The reason why I called him was because he said that he would know about the future scheduled itinerary on that day. So it should be him who called me, but if If I forgot, he wanted me to call him, so he told me the phone number of the hotel. As a result, he didn’t call me that day, so I called him. He also told me that he should be back at the hotel at ten o’clock. But the people at the hotel said he hadn't come back yet. I thought he was probably still busy, so we couldn't get in touch again."

Sayama thought, this passage is very interesting.If it is just a scheduled itinerary for skiing, it will not be too late to talk about it after returning from Osaka.Or is the time really tight?When Sayama asked about this kind of thing, Kanai said, "We really want to decide on the date as early as possible. Because appointments are required in all aspects. It's not that the date must be fixed, but the sooner the better." "I see." Sayama always felt that he couldn't let go, but there was no need to ask Kanai further about this matter. Next, Shindo asked Kanai how he felt about Naoki's murder.Jin Jing took a deep breath, frowned in pain, and then said: "That guy's life is indeed very rough. Even this murder may be caused by his fate. Thinking about it this way makes people feel more sympathetic. After all, it's not his fault that his life was rough."

After the two detectives bid farewell to Kanai, they returned to the Tokyu Hands department store again, and Sayama did not forget to buy a flower pot.However, what Kanai said frequently appeared in his mind. "How about this?" Xintang picked up a flowerpot the size of a human head and said.He accompanied Sayama to find flower pots.However, Sayama just said "Oh, um" casually, and Shindo put down the flower pot with a wry smile. "Are you thinking about that phone call?" he asked. "Well. I'm very concerned about it. What a coincidence that it happened to be that day." "If I didn't call you, you called me...ah. Sounds like you know your life is in danger." Hearing this opinion, Sayama couldn't help but glance at Shindo.This sentence made Sayama suddenly realize.So that's the case, Xintang is right, but Naoki can't have a premonition that he will encounter danger. "No, but..." An inexplicable feeling began to spread in my heart.When I was a student, like when I was taking an exam, I often felt the feeling of thinking hard about the answer but being unable to come up with it. Now it is exactly the same state of mind as that time. "I'm hypothetical. What if Naoki knew what was going to happen that day?" "How is it possible? If he knew, he would definitely run away." "Really? Naoki met the prisoner, and then felt that he might be killed by the other party... No, it's not right. If that's the case, it doesn't make sense to ask Kanai to make that kind of call. Let Kanai call, yes What good is Naoki?" Sayama turned his gaze to the flowerpot, but wasn't actually looking at anything.He became restless and began to think. "Mr. Sayama," said Shindo, "may I say something strange?" "Just say it, like I always say strange things." "Could it be that Naoki asked him to call to create an alibi?" Sayama almost dropped the flower pot in his hand, he quickly hugged it again, and then asked, "What did you say?" "Alibi, if there is a phone call at that time, it can become an alibi afterwards. This method often appears in novels." "Why did Naoki do that? He was the one who was killed..." Sayama said while feeling his heart beating wildly, and looked at Shindo's face again. "Maybe he intends to kill the prisoner?" "But it turned out to be the exact opposite." Sayama nodded, staring at the sky.This thing is starting to get a bit more serious. "Let's go back to the office." "Don't you need to buy flower pots?" "Just use the washbasin first." The two walked out of the building and rushed to Ikebukuro Station.The sidewalks were still full of people.As Sayama walked through the crowd, he continued: "Suppose Naoki draws up that kind of plan. In this way, it is Naoki's accomplice who moved the corpse. It was the other party's corpse that was originally intended to be moved, but something unexpected happened. situation. Even so, why proceed with the original plan?" "For the accomplice, there is no unexpected situation. The accomplice intends to kill Naoki from the very beginning. The only difference is the contents of the luggage, and the conveyor belt rotates according to the original plan—" "I see, the conveyor belt." The trap that Naoki was going to use to kill the opponent was actually a trap that lured him into the bait. "If it was Naoki who prepared the conveyor belt, maybe the car used to transport the corpses is also related to the people around him." "Of course that's true. Naoki's own car has been investigated, so we need to see if there are other cars around him." The moment he heard these words, a certain scene revived in Sayama's mind.It was when I went to Toyohashi.He stopped suddenly and stood in the middle of the sidewalk. "What's wrong with you?" Xintang looked worried. "That's it, that van." "Van?" "Yanaka said that Naoki used that van for wood processing." Shindo also opened his mouth in an "ah". "Now is not the time for a slow walk," Sayama said. "It's not time to stand in the middle of the road, is it?" "Call back to the office. Quick!" Hearing Sayama's order, Shindo rushed to the telephone booth, bumping into a young man who was distributing leaflets, and the white leaflets were flying in the wind.