Chapter 18 chapter 2

One day in August, Miyuki came home to find her mother dead—dead covered in blood. In her memory, it was only a faint imprint on the white bed cover, which explained to her the terrible scene at that time.When she regained consciousness, she was already lying on the bed in her room. She felt something pressing on her feet, so she opened her eyes and saw her sister Tingzi lying on her feet.The elder sister sat in front of the bed, put both hands on Meixing's feet, and leaned her head on them. Tingzi's body didn't move at all.Miyuki raised her foot slightly, as if in reflex, and Tingzi raised her face.

"you're awake?" sister said.The voice is like that of a patient with a high fever. "I," Miyuki said, touching her face, "I had a dream." Tingzi shook his head heavily: "But, that...that's not a dream." Miyuki shut her mouth.It was as if something was rushing upwards from the stomach. "Mom," Tingzi said, staring at Miyuki, "she's dead." silence. "It was killed." "..." Miyuki didn't say anything.He just clenched his teeth tightly, as if not letting the sound escape.Only the heart is still beating.

"It was killed!" Tingzi said it again, probably because she felt that her sister hadn't figured out the whole situation yet. "By... who?" It was hard to squeeze out these two words. "I don't know yet." Tingzi said. "Now the police are here, and they're going to do all sorts of investigations. You hear that, too?" I can really feel that there are many people in the house, and there are voices of talking from time to time. Miyuki covered her head with a quilt.Then he burst into tears. When she stopped crying, there was a knock on the door.Miyuki felt as if Tingzi stood up, came back after a while, and put his face close to Miyuki's ear.

"The police are here and want to ask us something." Tingzi said, "What should I do? Will I ask you later?" Miyuki thought about it for a while, then shook her head under the quilt.Although she doesn't want to see anyone now, she still wants to know more about the situation from the police. She sat up and waited for the police, so Tingzi walked over and opened the door, and a handsome man in his thirties entered. "Can I just ask a few questions?" The policeman sat down on the edge of the bed and said.Miyuki nodded. "I heard you went to the club for training, what time was it when you came back?"

Miyuki joins the school's tennis club. "This... I think it should be after two o'clock." Practice until two o'clock, then have a drink with friends and come back. "So, have you seen your mother?" "yes……" "Then you passed out?" Miyuki lowered her head.She felt that it seemed a little disgraceful to pass out at the sight of her mother's body. "Can you tell me everything from the time you came back until you saw your mother?" So Miyuki told the police what happened while thinking. "When you got to your mother's room, didn't you feel anything different from usual?"

"Different from usual?" The most different thing is that my mother died.But other than that it didn't feel any different.Because I didn't have time to think about it. The policeman turned his gaze to the pavilion. "When did you come back?" "A little past three o'clock. By then Mr. Police had seen me." After all, college students.Tingzi answered the police's questions in a clear tone. "Excuse me, where have you been?" "The library," she replied, "I went out at noon." "What time did you say noon?"

Tingzi tilted his head and thought for a while, "I think it was after one o'clock. I left after lunch." "Was your mother at home when you left?" "exist." "Is there anything unusual?" Regarding the policeman's question, Tingzi turned her head away and closed her eyes, but soon she opened them, and turned her head to look at the policeman, "Well, I don't think there is anything unusual." "yes?" Then, the police asked some questions about the locking of the doors and windows, that is, how her mother Ma Taeko closed the doors when she was alone at home.

"There are basically no special precautions." Tingzi replied on behalf of his younger sister: "The gate of the porch is the same. I think the gate of the courtyard can also let people in, so it's just open." Miyuki listened to her sister's words with a depressed mood, and thought that when she was at home in the future, she might nervously lock every door. Next, the police asked the sisters if they had any clues about the case.Both of them shook their heads as if for granted.The policeman nodded and closed his notebook. "Excuse me……" Seeing him standing up, Miyuki asked nervously.So the policeman looked back at her half-bowed like that.

"Excuse me...how did my mother get killed?" Hearing this, the policeman showed a bewildered expression on his face, and quickly turned his gaze to the pavilion.It seemed to be asking: "Can I say?" So Miyuki also looked at her sister. "It was a stab in the chest with a knife." Tingzi said as if he couldn't help it, and pointed to his left chest with his index finger. "So there was a lot of blood. Did you see that too?" see.Miyuki said.She didn't make a sound, however.Instead of this sound, the whole body trembled. "There is no possibility of suicide?"

Tingzi asked as if confirming.The policeman nodded, "A fruit knife suspected to be the murder weapon was found in the trash can in the corner of the house. The fingerprints on it have been wiped off, so we think it was a homicide." "So... when was Mom killed?" Meixing asked slowly, and the police opened the notebook again, "Based on all the testimonies now, Miss Tingzi left home after one o'clock, and your father found the body at half past two, so the time of death should be during this time." .” "One to two thirty..." Miyuki repeated, and couldn't help having doubts again.

"Why did Dad come back so early today?" Yangsuke holds an important position in a local pharmaceutical company.Going home so early like today is unprecedented. "Daddy is not feeling well today, so he came back early." Ting Zi told her. "It's just that he never expected such a thing to happen." "Dad...was Dad the first to find out that Mom was dead?" Miyuki asked the police. "Yes. Call the police as soon as you find out, and you're back right away." "Next..." "Oh, and, because of the investigation, it may cause you a lot of trouble, but you still have to take a good rest. So let's stop here today." After the policeman finished speaking, he walked out, and Tingzi followed suit. After Miyuki was left alone, she put on the quilt again, but her mind was clear. If Taeko is dead when Yosuke comes back... Dad is not the kind of person who takes off his shoes and arranges them neatly.So who is the person who puts Dad's leather shoes in order? Another detective in the living room was asking Ba Yangsuke, the owner of the house, about the situation. "Actually, all I want to ask are routine questions." This is how the detective started the questioning. "You came back around two-thirty. Can anyone testify for you?" "Testimony? Are you doubting me?" Yosuke raised his voice slightly, and his expression became ugly.The policeman immediately waved his right hand. "Because this is a very critical time, if there are objective witnesses for this, it will be very helpful for future investigations to avoid going astray." The criminal police said in a more tactful tone. Yangsuke sighed, put his hands on his forehead, and then asked, "Does your own family count as the witnesses you are talking about?" "You mean...your own family?" "It's my wife's younger sister, Noriko Otsuka. She lives nearby. When I came out of the company at two o'clock today, I ran into her by chance. She happened to be going home too, so she took my car back. I I think you can prove it to me if you ask her, but she is from our own family." "Indeed." The detective nodded after thinking about it for a while. "Is there nothing else?" "yes……" Yosuke scratched his hair, then stopped his hands as if remembering something. "Oh, I don't know if there is another one who can be my witness, but I called just after two o'clock." "Call? Where did you call?" "I called home first. I wanted to tell my wife that I would be home soon, but no one answered. I thought it was strange, so I called my neighbor." "Wait... please wait." The criminal police hurriedly stretched out his right hand. "You should have told us about such things earlier. This is a very important matter. You called home after two o'clock, but no one answered, is that right?" "yes." "Then, you called the neighbor's house again?" "Because I was a little worried, I asked my neighbors to help me find out what's going on." "How did the neighbor answer?" "The neighbor's wife looked at it and said it didn't look like I was home. So I thought maybe my wife had gone somewhere." "Was Mrs. Taeko's sister with you when you called?" "Together." The detective scratched his nose with the cap of the mechanical pencil, and let out a long "Oh...".