Chapter 7 Suruga Nao no.3

After parting with Yukisa Kaori, I couldn't go back to the apartment immediately like she did. Instead, I went to the hotel in Akasaka and met Hotaka's father and brother in the lounge on the first floor.It is said that his father used to be a taxi driver and was taken care of by the eldest son and his wife after retirement.And the eldest son, Hodaka's older brother, worked at the local credit bank.As Hotaka's family, I was amazed at how surprisingly down-to-earth they were. Both wives are still alive, but they are resting at home today.The two of them drove a private car to Ibaraki early this morning.It is said that they planned to stay here for one night after the wedding banquet, and then go home from the expressway when they go to Tokyo Disney again tomorrow.The Hodaka brothers and sisters-in-law have a daughter who is in kindergarten, and they originally played an important role in presenting flowers for the bride and groom at the climax of the wedding banquet.For this reason, the couple deliberately gave up buying new clothes for themselves, and dressed their daughter in high-end clothes.It was none other than Hotaka who told me these things.

What I have to tell them is all about Hotaka's funeral, when, where, what level, who to contact and how to contact, there are a lot of things that need to be decided.It is true, as they say, that the rites called funerals have arisen for the absence of mental grief. Having said that, it was really difficult for them, who had originally come to Tokyo to attend the wedding of their son and younger brother, to attend his funeral instead.After all, we were dressed exactly as we were at the wedding except for the white ties we had tied down. His father is almost 10 years older than he was at the meeting this morning. No matter what I say to him, he feels as if his brain is completely out of order.His elder brother is barely aware of what he should do, but his thinking seems to be unable to fully keep up. I have to repeat the same content to them several times, answer the same question several times, and the final result is: all Everything is up to me to decide.

The funeral will be held in Ibaraki. I need to contact the funeral home tomorrow and ask them to help me with several forms of cost estimates. After that, Hodaka’s family will decide what kind of funeral to hold, and tomorrow I will ask the police how to get the body back. —It takes almost two hours to get this mess done.It was said to be a discussion, but in fact it was just me talking for two hours. "It really caused you a lot of trouble. After all, I don't know anything about my brother's life." After our discussion was almost over, Hodaka's brother Michihiko said apologetically.According to him, Hodaka basically did not return to Ibaraki for the New Year in the past two years. "It's nothing, as long as there is something I can help, you can just bring it up." I said against my will.I plan to pave the road properly, and then I will hand over everything to the two of them when I see the right time.It would be a disaster for me if I was forced to help Hodaka Planning Company pay off the debts.

"It's so unpredictable in one's life, and this kind of thing happened on the wedding day. He was in good health before, but it's unbelievable that he would suffer from a heart attack!" Hodaka Michihiko said with a painful expression on his face. Said the expression. From his words, I could tell that the police did not disclose the possibility of homicide to them, and that heart paralysis should be the cause of death they casually made up. "Excuse me, what's her name? That is, the person who is about to become his wife." The father who had been silent before spoke a little incoherently.It must be Miwako. After being reminded by his son, he went on to say, "Oh, yes, Miwako. What about the child? Is he naturalized?"

"No, not yet naturalized." I replied. "Ah, that's good, otherwise you need to go through all kinds of troublesome procedures." Dao Yan's expression seemed to be relieved. What are the so-called complicated procedures? Could it be that Shenlin Meihezi left a divorce record and they felt sorry?It didn't take long before I thought about the inheritance. I see, after naturalization, all of Hodaka's properties, including the residence in Shakujii Park, belonged to Miwako.I looked at Daoyan's unpretentious face again, maybe his character is not as simple as it appears on the outside.

"I originally prayed that he would grow old with his wife this time." The elderly father said with emotion, his eyes were wrinkled. By the time I got back to Nerima's apartment, it was past 11 o'clock.Although it's a fairly cool day, the underarms of my white shirt are completely soaked.His face was greasy, and his bangs were sticking to his forehead, which was quite unpleasant. He put the top of the dress on his shoulders, and when he was about to enter the room from the entrance, he saw two men standing in front of the door with automatic lock.One is wearing a tan suit, the other is wearing beige trousers and a dark blue jacket.Both looked to be in their 30s and of similar build, the one in the tan suit was taller and leaner.

As soon as the two of them saw me, they walked over immediately, and their reaction was within my expectation.In fact, when I saw these two people, I immediately guessed their identities. As it is often said, these guys really have a unique temperament. "Are you Mr. Suruga? We are from the First Search Division." The man in a suit said, showing me his police ID.His name is Doi, and the other in the blue jacket is Nakagawa. Do you have any questions?I asked, this indifferent tone was deliberately put on by me. "There are some new questions and I want to ask you, do you have time?" Doi asked.

Even if I said I didn't have time, these guys would never go back obediently, and I was quite interested in what information the police had so far, so I said, "Please come in there." I opened the door with the key. My room is barely a two-bedroom, but it also doubles as the office of Hotaka Planning, and recently Hotaka always brings in some strange cardboard boxes, making my room like a warehouse of a home appliance store.In fact, I can roughly guess the contents of the cardboard box. They are nothing more than various household items that hint at Hotaka's previous marriage.No matter how dull he is, he knows that the bride should not see the couple T-shirts and wedding photos with his ex-wife.

There are also things in the cardboard box that his ex-wife sent him by courier. I heard from Hotaka that when she remarried, those things that would remind her of her past married life were really a burden to her, so she sent them without saying hello. to his house. That's what happens when you get divorced——I recalled what Hotaka said with a wry smile. The room was too dirty, and even the two criminal policemen couldn't help showing a look of surprise.I reminded them to be careful not to trip, and took them to the table and sat down.The flickering indicator light of the answering phone indicated that there was a new message, but I ignored it for the time being, maybe it was left by Yukisa Kaori's negligence.

Sally came out from behind the cardboard box. She was a little wary of the sudden guests, but she still walked towards them.I picked her up. "This cat is so cute, what breed is it?" Detective Doi asked.I answer, Russian agate.He nodded half-understanding, probably knowing nothing about cat breeds. "After the writer's death, what should the office do?" Nakagawa, who was wearing a blue jacket, looked around the room and asked. "It can only be closed down." I replied, "Does it need to be said?" The two police officers looked at each other, clearly showing interest in the matter.Probably they imagined that being a writer is a lucrative and easy job, and they were inexplicably jealous.

"So, what's the thing to ask me?" I urged them to ask, being too tired to chat with them. "Actually, we heard something from Takahiro Kamibayashi." Detective Doi said straight to the point, with a blunt tone, "It is said that a lot of people came to Hodaka's house yesterday to prepare for today's wedding." Yes, I nodded, and at the same time, I had already anticipated what the criminal policeman wanted to say. "He said that a woman appeared in the courtyard at that time." Doi continued. Unsurprisingly, this is the case.I nodded again, with a nonchalant look on my face. "Well, there is indeed such a thing." "Who is that woman? According to Shenlin, you and she seem to have had a very intimate conversation." The man Shenlin Guihong has seen everything he should see!I'd better not lie about this. I sighed at the detectives and shook my head slightly. "The name is Namioka Junko, the deputy of the veterinary hospital." "Veterinary Hospital?" "It's the veterinary hospital that I often take this little guy to." As I said that, I let Sally go, and she ran towards the window sill. "That is to say, she is your acquaintance?" Doi asked. "Originally." "How do you say that?" Doi's face was full of curiosity, and Nakagawa also leaned out. "She said that she admired Hotaka very much, so I introduced her to Hotaka. The two of them took this as an opportunity to start dating." "Dating? But Hotaka held a wedding with another woman today!" "Yeah, that is to say, um..." I looked at the two detectives separately, shrugged and said, "She was abandoned by Hotaka." "I'd like to hear you tell this story in detail." Doi returned to the stool, perhaps to calm down and listen. "It doesn't matter, but you'd better hear her story. She lives very near here." "Oh, I see." "Well," I nodded, "it's in this building." Their eyes widened almost at the same time. "Is this... purely by chance?" Doi asked. "It's not so coincidental, it's better to say that I got to know her because I lived in the same building as her." "So that's the case. Which floor and room does she live in?" "Room 303." Zhong Chuan quickly wrote it down, and he was ready to get up from the stool. "What did you say to Miss Langoka yesterday?" Doi asked. "It was a conversation, but I was actually trying to persuade her. She was very emotional and said that she wanted to meet Hotaka's marriage partner." "Oh, then what?" "Go home first, that's all." After Doi tapped his head vertically twice, he stood up. "As you say, it would be better to actually hear from her." "The first room you get out of the elevator is Room 303." Thank you, Doi said thanks, and at this time Nakagawa had already put on his shoes. After the police left, I took a 350ml can of Budweiser out of the fridge and the clock on the wall said 11:28. The cops are sure to start yelling at 11:30, and before that, sip a few beers. The hands of the clock moved to 12:30, and although the date had changed, what I called 'today' didn't seem to be ending yet.It has indeed been an extremely long day, as I had predicted in the morning. "Confirm again, according to what you said, although Junko Namioka came to the courtyard of Hodaka's house yesterday, he didn't enter the room, did he?" Police Department Watanabe asked with a stern face. "As far as I know, it does," I replied cautiously. The interrogation was conducted in my room, and the on-site evidence collection was still in full swing two floors below.I have some sympathy for the people who live on the same floor as Zhunzi. The evidence collection should bring them a lot of inconvenience.Even though the windows were closed and the outside sound could not be heard, there must have been a lot of noise from the people who came to join in the fun near the apartment.Looking at it from upstairs just now, the five police cars were crowded with nearby residents. My original plan was to wait for an opportunity to take the initiative to introduce to the police a woman named Junko Namioka who was abandoned by Hotaka, but unexpectedly the body was found tonight, but from another point of view, it really saved me few things. At about 11:33, Detective Doi returned to my room with a sudden change of expression. At that time, I hadn't even finished half of the bottle of Budweiser. Then Doi took me to room 303, showed me the corpse, and asked me if it was Junko Namioka, and I replied: "Yes, it is her." Needless to say, I was surprised by the situation at that time And the fear of seeing a dead body is just acting. Doi told me to wait in my room. Detective Watanabe, who seemed to be the person in charge of the crime scene, came over and began to ask about the relationship between Junko Namioka and Makoto Hodaka.And except for the fact that I carried Junzi's body without mentioning a word, I told the truth, even Junzi was pregnant with Hodaka's child. "According to what you said, we think Namioka Junko should hate Hotaka very much, isn't that true?" Watanabe asked, observing my expression. "There may be hatred, but" I looked at the police department with a square face, sure that he must not have seriously considered women's psychology, and said, "She still loves Hodaka until the last moment." Police Department Watanabe nodded with a complicated expression. My last sentence should be of no value to the search. After the police left, it was past one o'clock in the morning.I filled my hungry stomach with a bowl of instant noodles.The meal was a bit pathetic at the end of a long day. After eating, I'm going to take a shower.I took off the dress I had been wearing since early morning and threw it away. In order to prevent wrinkles, I folded the trousers along the crease and hung them on the hanger for the funeral tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Walking out of the bathroom, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't listened to the phone recording, so I pressed the play button.To my surprise, there were 13 unread messages in it.All calls were from newspaper reporters. I hope that I can accept their interviews about Hotaka's death. The offensive will definitely be more violent tomorrow.Just thinking about how to deal with them gives me a headache. Hotaka's sudden death happened around 12:00 noon, so the news will definitely be broadcast on the news program after the evening.At this point in time, all Japanese should know about it. I turned on the TV and looked, but after all it was almost two o'clock in the middle of the night, and none of the stations were broadcasting news programs. Then there are the newspapers, but today is Sunday and there are no evening papers.No, even if there is, it should be too late to write a report. Thinking of this, I realized that I hadn't picked up the Sunday morning paper. Although I didn't have any special reports, I decided to go downstairs. On the one hand, I wanted to see the extent of the police investigation. There are other purposes. Instead of taking the elevator, I took the stairs to see what was going on on the third floor.However, looking from the escape ladder, the door of room 303 was closed tightly, and there was no sign of search personnel moving around at all.I thought there would be a policeman standing guard at the door when such a case happened, but there was no one there. I took the elevator on the third floor to the ground floor. On the left side of the automatic locking gate, there are mailboxes of various households lined up. There was a man standing there, dressed in a dark green suit that was close to black, and seemed to be close to 1.80 meters tall.The shoulders are very broad, which makes people feel that they are athletes. The man was facing the direction of the mailbox, bending down to look in from time to time.When I found out that he was looking at the mailbox in Room 303, I was a little nervous. Is he the police? As if nothing had happened, I approached my mailbox, which can be opened by dialing a three-digit combination on the dial pad.And when I dialed the code, I caught a glimpse of the tall man looking at me, and I felt that he must have something to say. "Are you Mr. Suruga?" As expected, the voice was low and loud. Well, yes, I replied, "How do you know my name?" "It's written on the door plate of the room." The man said, his tanned skin was well-defined.Age about 30 years old. "Who are you?" I asked him. The man bowed, "I'm Kaga from Nerima Police Station." "Kaga?" "Kaga of Kaga Million Stones." "Ah~" This name is very rare, "What are you doing here?" "I want to open the mailbox," Kaga grabbed the dial in room 303, "see if there is any way to open it." I looked at the man in surprise. "That's not okay, even a criminal policeman can't do this, right?" "It's really not possible." Kaga said with a smile, and looked into the mailbox again. "But there's something I want to take out no matter what." "What is it?" "Come here and take a look." Kaga waved to me while pointing to the opening of the mailbox. "Look inside, there is a contact slip for courier delivery when there is no one at home, right?" "Well," there was indeed something inside, but the light was too dim to see what was written on it. "So what's the matter?" "I saw it says 3:30 p.m.!" Kaga looked around again and said. "Is there anything wrong?" "If this contact sheet came in at 3:30, it would mean that Namioka was not at home at that time; but according to what you said, Namioka left Hodaka's house after 1:00, and departed from Shakujii Park at this time , I will definitely be back here in 2 hours at the latest. So where did Langoka go halfway?" Kaga said clearly. I was stunned for a moment. Speaking of Saturday afternoon at 3:30, Junko Namioka was of course in the courtyard of Hodaka's residence.That was before she committed suicide, she was talking to me on her mobile phone. "She might not be in the room." I said, Kaga tilted his head puzzled, I looked at him and said, "I mean, maybe she was dead by then." Ordinarily, this possibility is not impossible, but the criminal policeman of the Nerima Police Station still has an expression of unrelieved expression. "Any questions?" I asked him. Kaga looked at me and said: "People downstairs heard footsteps." "People downstairs?" "The person in room 203, it was almost dark on Saturday evening, so it must have been around six o'clock. She did say that she heard the footsteps of someone walking upstairs. She would never have noticed it normally It was the sound, but I had a cold that day, and I was lying in bed all the time, so I overheard it." "Oh……" That's when!I think back.When Hotaka and I carried the corpse into the house, we really didn't have time to pay attention to our own footsteps. "So, Miss Langoka's death must have happened after that, otherwise it would be too strange." Kaga said, "Of course, it would be a different matter if the footsteps were made by someone else." "Well then," I tucked the newspaper under my arm, and prepared to go upstairs. "After leaving Hodaka's house, he may have wandered somewhere for a while. Since he thought of committing suicide, he must be mentally abnormal." "That's true. But where did she go?" The second half of the sentence sounded special, so I glanced back at him.But he didn't look like he said anything special at all. I opened the door and walked in, and Kaga followed, with a natural expression.Seems ready to take the elevator with me. "What are you going to investigate next?" After entering the elevator, I pressed the '3' and '5' buttons and asked. "No, I'm just responsible for sticking to the scene and dealing with some trivial matters." Kaga said, but it didn't look like he was belittling the criminal police in his own jurisdiction. There was a slight smile on the corner of his mouth, revealing a kind of self-confidence for unknown reasons, and I couldn't help but feel a little scared. The elevator stops on the 3rd floor. "Then I will take my leave. You have worked so hard today, you must be tired? Please have a good rest." After speaking, Kaga stepped off the elevator. "Interpol, you have worked hard too, goodbye." I pressed the 'close the door' button. Just as the door was about to close, Kaga suddenly stretched out his right hand and pushed the door back abruptly.I couldn't help taking a small step back. "May I ask you one last question?" "Please." Controlling my slight uneasiness, I replied. "Mr. Suruga, are you also familiar with the deceased Namioka?" "Well, sort of." What did he want to ask, I was surprised. "As far as you know, what kind of personality does Namioka have? Is it a delicate personality? Or is she informal and carefree?" The question this man asked was really inexplicable, what was the purpose? "It's delicate, otherwise I wouldn't be able to take care of small animals." After listening to my answer, Kaga nodded vigorously. "You mean about her work in the veterinary hospital?" "yes." "Is it fashionable to dress or something?" "It should be counted. Of course, it's not enough to dress weirdly." "Is that so strange?" "What's wrong?" I was a little anxious.How long is this man going to push the elevator door? Then Kaga pointed to a nearby door, which was Room 303. "Did you hear about leaving a suicide note?" "Well, I heard." "Written on the back of the flyer, an advertisement for a beauty salon." "Huh?" I pretended it was the first time I heard about it. "Don't you find it strange? The last message I left, why is it written on the back of the leaflet? There are a lot of unused notes and blank paper in the room, and the edge of the leaflet is still was torn off." This point has attracted the attention of the police. I am a little helpless, after all, I am mentally prepared. "Well... since her mind is full of suicidal thoughts, she must lose her mind." "It can be seen that this situation does not seem to be a suicide on impulse." "Then," I shrugged and said with a sigh, "I don't know. After all, I have no experience of suicide." "Well, of course I don't have either." Kaga showed his bright teeth, but immediately closed his mouth again, tilting his head slightly. "But I still don't understand something." "What's up?" "It's just weeds." "Weeds?" "Yeah, a withered weed sticking to Namioka's hair. I wondered how it could stick to it. If I didn't take a nap in the park, it wouldn't stick to it." I was silent, or rather, had nothing to say. "Mr. Suruga," the detective said to me. "Is there a lawn in the Hodaka house's garden?" I had no choice but to nod, "Yes." "That's right." Kaga stared at me intently, making one want to look away, but I also stared at him. He finally let go of the hand holding the elevator door. "Sorry to delay your rest time." "Then I'll excuse you first." After the door was completely closed, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. After returning to my room, I drank a lot of water, and my throat was thirsty. Regarding the key to Junko Namioka’s room, it’s not that I don’t care about it. Since there is no spare key, it is impossible to lock it from the outside. Between the two unnatural things of no key in the room and an unlocked door, I choose the latter. It doesn't matter, this level of unnaturalness will not expose the truth.Just insist that you don't know what to say. only-- Kaga of the Nerima Police Station, this man is better to be careful, leaving weeds in Toshiko's hair is a big negligence.Having said that, relying on the strength of the criminal police in the jurisdiction alone can't do anything amazing. Sally, who was sleeping on the dining table, stood up and stretched.I picked her up by both paws and walked over to the glass window.Staring at the reflection of myself and the cat like this is also one of my daily joys. "Please touch it like this every day. For these little guys, it feels like being licked by a mother." Junko Namioka said this while stroking Sally's back and the side face reappeared in front of my eyes . This long day finally came to an end. I don't feel guilty.I just did what I had to do. The cat's face reflected in the window merged with that of Toshiko Namioka while I muttered to myself. Zhunzi, I will avenge you! I killed Hodaka Makoto for you——