Chapter 16 Section 3

The place Hayata specified was a coffee shop in front of Ikebukuro Station.Zhe Lang walked into the coffee shop at six o'clock on time, and Yukihiro Hayata was already sitting in the inner seat. After seeing Zhe Lang, he raised his hand slightly. "I'm sorry to ask you out suddenly." Hayata said after Zhe Lang finished ordering coffee. "Where. By the way, where do you want me to accompany you?" "I'll tell you that later. But before that, I want to go to a place. Excuse me, will you go with me? I won't take up too much of your time." "Time doesn't matter, where are you going?"

"It's not far away, about 20 minutes' drive away. Anyway, there's no rush, drink your coffee slowly." After speaking, Hayata lit a cigarette.Beside him was a small paper bag. Soon, the waiter brought coffee.Zhe Lang was drinking coffee while thinking about Hayata's purpose.Did he sense something from Sugai's question?Even so, he shouldn't have any reason to contact Zhe Lang.Zhe Lang prayed because he was worrying unfoundedly. He suddenly remembered Hayata when he was a player.He's a man who gets the job done flawlessly whether he's put in charge of offense or defense.He knows the rules and tactics like the back of his hand, and initially hoped to play quarterback.He was later chosen as a winger because of a quality-based judgment by the team manager.In other words, he not only has the defensive ability, but also can see through the opponent's thoughts, and then use his tactics to actively receive the ball.

"How is work? Are you busy?" Hayata asked Zhelang. "It's been a while because there's a lot of football and rugby at the end of the year." "How about American football? Is it still just as popular?" "Yes. Even if I write it, no magazine will buy my manuscript." Regarding Zhe Lang's answer, Hayata laughed silently.He stubbed out his cigarette and picked up a new one. "I was thinking, even after you graduate, you're going to keep playing football." "yes?" "I think you should be very sorry. However, you may be right in not continuing to play. There are also several teams from the Journalists Association who invited me, but..." Hayata puffed upwards. "Enough of American football. Or should I say, enough of team games. That kind of thing is something you play in school."

"Aren't you part of the team now?" "Formally." Behind this sentence, I hide my self-esteem as a reporter. "Wouldn't Takakura be disappointed if you don't continue playing?" "No." "Have you discussed it with her?" "No." "I see." Hayata nodded, bending the still long cigarette in the ashtray. "It's almost time to go." He grabbed the bill and got up. Hayata stopped a taxi in front of the station.As soon as he got in the car, he ordered the driver to go to Banqiao Station. "Banqiao?" Zhe Lang asked in surprise.

"Well, we're going to the victim's home of a certain murder case. This murder case happened about a week ago." Hayata looked at Zhe Lang and replied. "What's wrong with you?" "It's okay." Zhe Lang shook his head lightly. "The male owner of that family was killed, and his body was found in a factory in Edogawa District. The murderer is still unknown, and the victim is a down-and-out middle-aged man. I'm sorry for the victim, but it is true. A murder case not worth mentioning." Hayata took out a cigarette, but immediately put it back in his pocket.He seems to have spotted a sticker that read "No Smoking Cars." "Do you know about this murder case? It was also published in the newspaper."

"I seem to have seen it, but I don't remember much." "I think so." Hayata nodded and looked forward. Zhe Lang felt a stream of sweat flowing from his armpit.It can't be a coincidence.Hayata knew that Zhe Lang was related to the murder case, and wanted him to accompany her to the victim's house.So, why did Hayata know?It must be because Sugai called him, right?However, could he link the murder case with Zhe Lang based on this alone?If so, it can only be said that his insight is extraordinary.Zhe Lang always felt that there were other reasons, but what was it?

"What did you do at the victim's house?" Zhe Lang asked tentatively. "Just ask two or three questions. If you don't want to go, you can find a place to wait for me. However," an inexplicable smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he continued: "For future plans, go to that kind of place to see Not bad for a while? After all, you can’t write sports stories forever, can you?” "Yes." Zhe Lang replied after thinking for a while. "Then, I'll go with you." His purpose was unknown, and because of this, Zhe Lang wanted to see for himself what tricks he was playing.In addition, Zhelang also wanted to know how the investigation was going.

Hayata nodded, as if saying: This is the best. The two got off the car in a residential area densely populated with small buildings.After walking a few steps, Hayata stopped and said, "That's the one." He was referring to an old single-family house.Next to the cramped parking lot, barely big enough for a small car, was a gate with peeling paint.A rare push-button doorbell is installed next to the door. "About twenty pings?" Zhe Lang looked up at the windows on the second floor with cheap aluminum windows. "Shibaping." Hayata said immediately. "Have you investigated?"

"I want to know first, who benefits from the victim's death. However, I guessed completely wrong. Even a house the size of a pigeon coop might be sold for a certain price, but if it is someone else's house, Don't talk about it." "Is the house rented?" "It seems to be his cousin's house. That cousin runs an iron factory and employs the victim as an employee. However, it may be more correct to say that his cousin took him in who was laid off. From the standpoint of that cousin, not only To take care of him at work and give him a house to live in, this kind of relative is simply a plague." Hayata held the cigarette between his fingertips and shook his body.

Judging from Hayata's tone, he seems to have done some research on Tokura Akio. "However, his cousin finally made him a figurehead managing director. He has no special talent and is not good at negotiating. Speaking of what he can do, it seems that the only thing he can do is socialize with guests, because the president doesn't know how to drink. .” "Are you socializing with guests in Ginza?" "Well, he seems to go to the Ginza area a lot." Zhe Lang speculated that he should have also gone to "Cat's Eye" at that time. "As far as the managing director is concerned, his life is simple, right?" Zhe Lang looked at the house again.

"As I said, he is just a managing director in name only. I heard that the employees ridiculed him as a 'waste director', and his salary probably isn't much. Besides, he was fired last year due to the recent economic downturn." "So he hasn't worked this year?" "That's right." Hayata threw the shortened Marlboro Light Smoke on the ground and stamped it out with his thick-soled leather shoes. "Okay, now that you have the background information, we're about to go." Zhe Lang nodded, and walked behind Hayata. Walking to the front of the house, Hayata pressed the doorbell button.Zhe Lang glanced at the parking lot next to him. There were three potted plants not buried in the soil and a rusty car.He thought to himself, such a narrow space would not be able to hold a normal car.So, is Togura's car a small car?But Mizuki did say they were "fighting in the car".In this way, it shouldn't be a small car, right? When Zhe Lang thought of this, there was a sound from the inside of the door, and then there was the sound of unlocking, and the door opened about ten centimeters wide.There was an old chain attached to the door. Through the crack of the door, she saw the face of a short old lady, her eyes were wide and wrinkled. Hayata introduced himself and handed out his business card through the crack of the door. "I want to ask a few things about the murder." Seeing the name of the newspaper company written on the business card, the old lady seemed a little relieved.Even so, she still looked at the two with uneasy eyes. "But the police told me not to say more." "You don't have to say anything you don't want to say. We won't stalk you." Hayata said a gentle tone that Zhe Lang had never heard before, and bowed a few more times. The old lady didn't seem to want to answer, but she closed the door and removed the chain, and then opened the door again.Now I saw her whole body.Zhe Lang found that he was not short in stature, but severely hunchbacked. "What do you want to ask?" "Well, it's mainly about Mr. Mingxiong, like his usual life situation." "Mr. Interpol has asked me many times, but it doesn't seem to help." She seemed to mean that it was of little help to the investigation of the case. "It doesn't matter, we are not criminal police. In short, as long as we can know the basic things of Mr. Minxiong's personality." "Oh, that's it..." The old lady who seemed to be Akio Tokura's mother lowered her head hesitantly.The person in front of her was definitely not a distinguished guest, but perhaps because of her timidity, she couldn't sternly refuse. "May I bother you?" Hayata took advantage of her hesitation and stepped into the room.The old lady still looked confused, nodded and said "yes". Zhe Lang originally thought that he should stand in the porch and talk, but he didn't expect that as soon as Zaotian entered the room, he quickly started to take off his shoes, which surprised him.Hayata seems to want to enter the room.Togura's mother also looked puzzled, but she didn't stop Hayata from entering. As soon as you enter the room, you will find a Japanese-style room of more than two square meters. There is a round coffee table in the middle, and there are TVs, tea cabinets and small Buddhist altars lined up inside.Zhe Lang remembered that he had seen such a house decoration in a previous family drama.Slightly more modern is the video game console connected to the TV.The old lady in front of her couldn't play video games, it was probably her grandson's toy. There is a photo of Akio Togura on the Buddhist altar.Hayata got the consent of the old lady, offered incense for him, and prayed for a long time with palms together.Zhe Lang also imitated him to paint gourds.After burning the incense, Hayata handed the paper bag she had brought to her and said, "This is a little thought." The old lady opened her mouth, but said nothing after all, she nodded and put down the paper bag. After Hayata asked the old lady to express her condolences again, she confirmed her name.Her name is Kaede, and she has lived with Tokura Akio and his wife for three years.Before that, she lived in Nerima's apartment with her husband.He only moved in with them after her husband died. "Do you have no other children?" Hayata confirmed. "There is only one son, Mingxiong. We have no contact with relatives. Now I am really alone." Jiazhi said that before March this year, Mingxiong's wife Yasuko and his only son Shotahara lived together.As for the ins and outs of Taizi leaving with the general, she doesn't know the details. "They often quarrel, maybe Taizi finally couldn't take it anymore." "What was the reason for the quarrel?" Hayata asked. "I don't know." Jiazhi's round, wrinkled face turned sideways. "Because I've decided not to meddle in my son's affairs." "Could it be that Young Master Ling is having an affair?" Jiazhi said without changing her face: "Maybe that's one of the reasons, I'm not sure. My son and I rarely talk properly these days." The end of her words turned into a sigh. Zhe Lang, who was listening, couldn't tell if he was hiding something.It is likely that the police reminded her, and important things were left ambiguously. "Sorry, Mr. Akio seems to be unemployed?" Hayata said, "So, what does he do every day? Does he stay at home all the time?" "Well, well, sometimes he's at home, sometimes he's not...not necessarily." "Do you often go out at night?" "Well, uh, occasionally..." "Where is he going?" "I don't know about that." The old lady tilted her head. "Although he is a son, he is already an adult. I won't ask about his whereabouts one by one." Since he was following the female publicist, Tokura Akio should go out almost every day, and he must be very late when he came back.Zhe Lang has seen the notebook he wrote himself. If he wants to write down such detailed content, he should not be able to stay at home leisurely.There was no way his mother didn't know about it, the question was whether she knew about his stalker behavior. Hayata continued to ask: "Is anyone coming to visit Mr. Ling? It can be a woman or a man." "I think there should be no guests looking for him at home this year." "What about the phone? Do people often call Mr. Ling?" "I don't know about the phone. I don't pay much attention to this kind of thing, but there should be very few people calling him." Afterwards, Hayata also kept asking questions about Akio Togura's recent schedule and interpersonal relationship.However, Kaede's answer is almost always the same.In short, she "doesn't quite know". "Do you have any questions?" Hayata said to Zhe Lang.He used the word "you", which surprised Zhe Lang. He shook his head without saying a word, he had to feign indifference in front of Hayata. Hayata asked: "Can you let us see Akio Tokura's room? We won't mess around with the things in the room, just want to see what the room looks like, and feel that he is a person who leads a certain life." Jiazhi only hesitated for a moment, but unexpectedly agreed. "But I haven't tidied it up. I haven't cleaned it for a long time, and I was messed up by Mr. Criminal Police a few days ago." "It doesn't matter." Hayata said as he stood up. Up the narrow stairs, there are two connected rooms; a Japanese room with three pings, and a Western room that is slightly narrower than the Japanese room.The two rooms originally appeared to be separated by paper sliding doors, which have now been removed. In the Japanese room, there are TVs, storage cabinets and bookcases.There are several quilts stacked in the corner.Zhe Lang thought, those quilts probably never collected.At the junction of Japanese and Western style rooms, there is a cheap glass ashtray.Togura seemed to regard the Japanese room as a place to sleep. The western room is almost a storage room.There are combined storage furniture lined up by the wall, and the small cabinets are full of things.If you can't put it in, just put it on the ground.Several corrugated cardboard boxes of unknown contents were piled up on the ground, and the clothes on the cardboard boxes were piled up like a mountain.Zhe Lang thought to himself that it was impossible for Jia Zhi to clean this room. "Because the daughter-in-law is lazy, the room has become like this." Jia Zhi said looking at the two rooms. "Are these two rooms being used by Mr. Ling?" Kaede replied, "Yes." Zhe Lang thought to himself that it is not clear what happened between Akio Togura and his wife, but if the living space is so messy, it should be easy to accumulate dissatisfaction. "To be honest, a detective I know asked me a strange thing." Hayata said to Kaede. "He said that the family registration transcripts of several people were found in this room." Startled, Zhe Lang glanced at him subconsciously.After Hayata also took a look at him, he confirmed to Jiazhi: "Is this true?" She looked puzzled and didn't seem to intend to answer. "Well, it seems to be." "Where are those household registration transcripts?" "My son seems to be torn up and thrown in the trash." "Who are those household registration transcripts?" Jiazhi shook his head. "There are three books, all of which belong to strangers. Why does Mingxiong have such things...?" "Those aren't here now, are they?" "No, the police took it away." Hayata nodded, then glanced at Zhe Lang.Zhe Lang looked away in panic. Why does Tokura have something like that?Does that have something to do with the murder?Zhelang thought in his head.But as far as Mizuki said, there seems to be no relationship between the two.If this was part of Tokura's stalking activities, one of the three household registration transcripts might belong to a publicist named Koka.Zhe Lang thought to himself, this would be a little troublesome. In short, what is important is whether there is any sign in the house that Tokura is following Xiaoxiang.Zhe Lang locked his focus on this point and looked around the room.However, if there is such a thing, it is impossible for the police not to take it away. Zhe Lang fixed his eyes on the TV cabinet with the 14-inch TV.Several reels of videotapes were randomly stuffed in the TV cabinet together with the VCR.He crouched in front of the TV cabinet and picked up one of the tapes.A white label was pasted on it, and the names of several women were written in pencil. Zhe Lang found that one of them was a well-known heroine of an A movie. It seems that the other videos are probably A movies too.In Zhe Lang's mind, there was a tragic scene of a man who was abandoned by his wife watching adult videos alone in this deserted room. When he was about to put the video tape back in his hand, he found something.Startled, he couldn't help picking it up.It was a disposable lighter with two golden cat eyes painted on a black background.It was a "cat's eye" lighter. "What's wrong with you?" Hayata immediately asked Zhe Lang.Zhe Lang was startled. "No, nothing." However, Hayata ignored his answer and moved closer.Her eyes were fixed on what Zhe Lang was holding, and now she couldn't hide the lighter. "Just a disposable lighter." "let me see." As a last resort, Zhe Lang had to hand it to Hayata. "'Maoyan', does he often go to this store?" Hayata said looking at the back of the lighter. Zhe Lang looked up at Hayata's cold expression and thought: This man is monitoring my every move.The reason he brought himself here was to check how Nishiwaki Tetsuro would react when he stepped into Akio Tokura's room. "Could this be a good memory from the past?" Zhe Lang said, "When the company was doing well, he was in charge of socializing with customers, right?" "Maybe so." At this time, the sound of the door opening came from downstairs.Someone came into the house. At the same time, Zhe Lang saw that Jiazhi's expression was distorted.She seemed to know who the visitor was, and it was an unexpected visitor. The visitor went upstairs, as if aware of the first visitor.From the sound of footsteps, the other party seemed to be quite alert. Under Zhe Lang's gaze, a woman appeared; a thin woman in her forties.Her complexion is not very good, maybe it has something to do with the lack of makeup.Wearing jeans, a shirt, and a knit sweater for an outing, with his frizzy hair tied back. The woman was in the corridor, looking at Zhe Lang and Hayata alternately.With an expression of guessing who the two are.Unconsciously, she frowned, and those wrinkles exuded the vicissitudes of life. "Excuse me. I'm a reporter from Showa Newspaper. My surname is Hayata." He said loudly and handed out his business card. "Are you Mr. Mingxiong's wife?" The woman had a puzzled look on her face, she held down her business card, and answered inarticulately: "Well, yes." "I'm sorry to come into the house while you're away. We were just asking your mother-in-law some questions." "Oh, that's it." She glanced at her mother-in-law.Jiazhi turned his face to the side, and the eyes of the two didn't seem to meet. "We are really sorry about Mr. Akio." Hayata stood and bowed his head. "Uh, although I haven't been deregistered yet, I have nothing to do with that person." "Yes," Hayata said. "I heard about it." "I just came here to pick up my luggage today. I'm going back soon after I'm done." Her words seemed not to Zhe Lang and the others, but to Jia Zhi.But Kaede didn't respond. "That's it....Then, let's take our leave first." Hearing what Zaotian said, Zhe Lang also responded, "Yes." When I went down the stairs, I saw a five or six-year-old child playing video games in the Japanese room just now.The little boy only glanced at Zhe Lang and the others, and immediately turned his face back to the TV screen.Zhelang thought, as far as Tokura Akio's children were concerned, he was too young. Jiazhi then went downstairs and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't even invite you to drink tea." Zhe Lang thanked politely and left Hucang's house. Hayata stopped a taxi again, this time the location he indicated was Ginza. "Sorry for wasting your time." He apologized to Zhe Lang. "No. But did you gain anything?" "Yes." Hayata took out the Marlboro Light Smoke. "not bad." "That's good. I feel like I've learned a lot just by listening to it. So that's how you conduct the interview." "I didn't do anything special." Hayata breathed out white smoke. "By the way, that old lady is an old fox." "yes?" "Didn't she hunch back badly when she went to the entrance to open the door? But when we left, her back was straight. And she was able to go up and down the narrow stairs with ease." Hearing what Hayata said, it was true.Zhelang was disappointed that he had been careless and hadn't noticed. "Is the hunchback acting?" "She will probably change her attitude when she sees people. Maybe she will see the situation. Sometimes she will emphasize that she is an old man; if the situation is unfavorable, she will keep silent." "Is this an order from the police?" "No, probably not." Hayata stared at the front and denied. "It doesn't feel like anyone asked her to do that. It's probably the wisdom accumulated over the years and the instinctive defensiveness. Unless she understands the situation in front of her, she won't tell the truth." "truth……?" "Maybe she's hiding something. Although she can't say clearly about her son, we can't fully believe her words." Zhe Lang thought of asking about the household registration transcript, but he endured it.He didn't want to show he cared about the murder. "It's the end of the year, and the street decorations are still so deserted. It seems that this is really affected by the recession." Hayata looked out of the car and said. "Ginza might be slightly better." "Where do you want to go to Ginza? According to what you said yesterday, it seems to be a high-end hotel that is not convenient for a person to enter." "I don't know if it's high or not. It's really a confusing place." After speaking, Hayata took something out of his pocket. "We're going to this store." It was the "cat's eye" lighter I found in Tokura's room just now.