Chapter 32 Section thirty-two

Ueda Shigeo puffed his cheeks like a chess horse, and he shrunk his shoulders so that he could hardly see his head.Standing in front of Hagi Village and the others, he kept maintaining this posture.He seemed worried that the police would come and collect a fine because he hadn't reported it as lost. "Then, these DVDs are products in your store, right?" Hearing Hagimura's question, Ueda's head shrunk even more, and he nodded weakly. "Yes, well, roughly right." "approximately?" "Ah, that, yes, it's a product from our store, it can't be wrong." He nodded and bowed.

In the meeting room of the Yokosuka Police Station, Hagimura and Kashiwahara were listening to Shigeo Ueda's testimony together.On the conference table are DVDs and antique bags found in lost cars. "The loss is not too serious. If the loss is reported, the police will conduct various investigations, and the store will have to temporarily close. For a store like ours, closing the store for one day will cause heavy losses. Moreover, sudden closing will cause trouble for customers. For various considerations I didn't report the loss, I'm really sorry." Ueda still lowered his head with his hands on the back of his head.

Hagimura pushed the bag in front of Ueda. "Do you have any impression of this bag?" Ueda thought about it in confusion. "No, I haven't seen this one. Really. This bag, I've never seen it. It's not mine, it's probably Tsujimoto's." "Let Mr. Tsujimoto look at the photo and verify it, but he doesn't know." "Is that so, then, it should not belong to our store." Ueda said. Hagi Village took out several plastic bags from his bag.The items in the bag are individually placed in plastic bags. "Ever seen these things?"

Ueda stared at the items lined up on the table with a puzzled expression.Empty candy box, wallet, watch, lid, lipstick. Soon, Ueda reached for the plastic bag containing the watch.After looking at it for a while, he put it back on the table. "I don't know. It's not mine." "Does the watch look familiar?" "I have a similar watch, so I checked it out, but it's not mine." Hagi Village looked at Kashiwahara, he wanted to hear his opinion. "Since when did that closet become like that?" Kashiwahara asked. "That look?" "Since when did you start pushing out leftover DVDs in such a mess?"

"Ha... let me think about it, since when did it start?" Ueda crossed his hands in front of his chest and fell into deep thought, "I haven't touched this pile of things for a long time, a year... no, earlier, at last Open that closet one at a time." "The stolen DVD has a label from two years ago," Hagimura said. "Ah, that's right. Put those DVDs in the closet after the label was updated, probably nearly two years ago." "Did you use the closet to store inventory at the beginning of the store?" Kashiwahara asked. Ueda nodded vigorously.

"Well, when I just bought this store, I planned to use the second floor as an office. After opening the store, I found that there is no need for such things. Instead, the warehouse is more important. So I used the closet to store inventory. Not only the closet, but also the two floors. Used for storage." "Finally remembered." Bai Yuan stood with his hands on the table, looking down at Ueda who was sitting, "No one enters the second floor except you, even if it's just for a while." "No way. Well, the staff went in several times. As for whether someone put their own things there without authorization, I can't guarantee."

"So, what was it like there before it became a warehouse?" "Before the warehouse... well, it's empty. That's why I decided to put it in stock." Bai Yuan looked at Hagi Village, nodded slightly, indicating that he had finished asking. "That," Ueda said with a sneaky glance at them. "What are you investigating? What happened to the second floor? We just put some leftover DVDs, and there are no strange things hidden." "This will only be known after investigation. You just need to assist in the investigation." Hagi Village said.

"Why Yokosuka Police Station? Our store is not under your jurisdiction." "These items were found on a lost car found in the precinct of the Yokosuka Police Station." "Eh? Lost in the car..." "One last question, do you have any leads on the thieves who broke into your store? It's also common for former staff to sneak into places where they worked before." Ueda had a stern face, his mouth shut, and fell into deep thought, and finally he shook his head. "No, you won't find anything if you sneak in. Those guys know best." Hagimura sighed, it seems that there is nothing to ask from this man.

"Thank you, if there is any problem, I will come to you again, sorry for the trouble." He said to Ueda. "Here, can I go?" "Ok." "What about these?" Ueda looked at the DVD on the table. "You report the loss first. Then, I will return it to you after the necessary procedures are completed." After listening to Hagimura's explanation, Ueda nodded hesitantly and walked out of the room. Bai Yuan smiled wryly. "The uncle acted like he didn't want to report the loss or take back these DVDs." "The procedures are troublesome, and it's troublesome to put them back into the pile of warehouses. Speaking of which, what do you think? It has nothing to do with Ueda."

"It's okay." Bai Yuan sat down on the chair, "He didn't react when he saw the bag. I don't think it's an act." "I feel the same way. He really doesn't know. However, these things are indeed placed in that closet." Staring at the plastic bags lined up on the table, Hagi Village said. Kashiwahara reached out to pick up the lipstick. "It must have fallen from here." The lipstick was found without the cap in the lost car.However, the lipstick in Kashiwahara's hand is now well covered. This cover was found in the closet on the second floor of "GOODSOFT".Discovered by Hagi Village.

The moment he saw the cap, he was sure it belonged to the lipstick he found in the lost car.So, he contacted Bai Yuan and asked him to bring the lipstick to "GOODSOFT", and confirmed it on the spot. Now the forensics department is investigating on the second floor of "GOODSOFT".The result will come out soon, and Hagi Village thinks that the car thief must have sneaked in there to steal things. "The forensics department just called. The inspection door of that closet was opened only recently." Bai Yuan said. "The ceiling of the closet." Well, Bai Yuan nodded. "I haven't investigated in detail yet, so I can't say for sure. It seems that someone moved the signs in the ceiling. But I didn't touch it everywhere, I just reached out and touched it from the inspection port." "Tsujimoto and Ueda have no clues. It seems that they must be professional thieves." "It's better to think about it this way." Bai Yuan looked at the items lined up on the table. "I heard a habitual offender say that when he didn't get anything, he would look at the top of the ceiling. If you are lucky, you can find private money and hide it secretly. Wake up baby or something." "I've heard of it too." "This candy box may have been sitting in the ceiling." "Then it was stolen by thieves." "I couldn't steal anything and I didn't want to return empty-handed, so I took this, and I also stole the DVD. It should be like this." "It would be nice if you could ask the thief for questioning, and now I can't find it." "It's not necessarily dead." "That's right." It has not yet been confirmed who took the ship found in the sea of ​​Kannonzaki.In other words, no drowned bodies have been found so far.Depending on the direction of the tide, the body is likely to flow into the ocean along the Uraga Strait. "Whether the thief lives or dies has nothing to do with us. What matters is who hides this candy box in the ceiling." "This, well~~~" Just when Bai Yuan was about to speak, he suddenly took out his cell phone. The cell phone vibrated and there was a call.After a few words, he hung up the phone. "A call from the forensics department. The fingerprints on the watch are not from Tsujimoto and Ueda." "as expected." "Now, 'GOODSOFT' has absolutely nothing to do with this case." Hagimura nodded, looking at the plastic bag on the table.The bag with the gold watch. Only this watch has relatively clear fingerprints.It was confirmed that it belonged to Ariake Yukihiro and Toko who were killed. "So, what should we do next?" Bai Yuan asked. "Look into 'GOODSOFT'." "Investigate this store? According to the forensic results, there should be nothing wrong with them." "Ask about real estate," Hagimura replied. "Maybe the candy box was hidden there before Ueda rented the store. As far as I know, they only remodeled the first floor." "I see," Bai Yuan nodded repeatedly, giving a thumbs up, "Let's go!" Called Ueda and asked where he rented the shop.Knowing that it was a real estate company next to Yokohama Station, the two hurried to it. In a certain office on the first floor of the building, they found the person in charge, a young male employee with glasses. "The renter there has changed several times. The landlord built the house to open a clothing store, but the business was poor so he rented it out." The male clerk said while looking at the documents. "Who was this store lent to before?" Hagi Village asked. "Before 'GOODSOFT'? Well... it's a restaurant called Togami Tei." "Togami Tei?" "How to write Chinese characters?" The male clerk pushed the document in the direction of Hagi Village, with "Togami-tei" written on it. "I seem to have heard of it." Bai Yuan murmured to himself.