Chapter 25 Section 4

Takako Yajima suddenly claimed that she had an alibi, a full week after the incident. She went to the search headquarters in Hisamatsu Police Station in person and showed a search officer a cash receipt from a coffee shop she had entered on the day of the crime.She said she thought she had thrown it away, but later found it in the bag, which showed the date as the 13th and checkout time of 6.45pm. The name of the coffee shop is "Refrain".Kusanagi and Makita happened to be free, so they went to the coffee shop together to collect evidence. The coffee shop is located on the second floor of a building in Ginza 3-chome. Through the glass windows in the shop, you can overlook Chuo Avenue.The decoration and furnishings in the store are more exquisite, and it can be seen that it is a high-end store.Yajima Takako said that she entered by accident while strolling, so Kusanagi imagined this store as a very popular coffee shop.The actual scene surprised him a little, and it was unbelievable that she would forget such an easy-to-remember place.

"Ah, this customer, she has indeed been here." The young store manager was wearing a white shirt, which matched well with his tanned skin.He was holding the photo that Kusanagi had brought out, which showed Takako Yajima. "Are you sure?" "Sure. Well, it must have been last Thursday." Thursday is the day of the 13th. "There are so many guests here every day, can you still remember so clearly?" "We are also looking for this person," said the store manager, "because she has forgotten something here." "Did you forget something here?"

"Please wait a moment." He walked to the front desk, brought a small paper bag, and took out the contents of the paper bag in front of Kusanagi and the others. It was a somewhat worn-out compact compact with a mirror. "She forgot this on the seat. We thought she might come back to get it, so we kept it for her." "Let's hand over to Pei her." "Thank you so much." "Also," Kusanagi said, "are you sure it's the woman in the photo? Can you take a closer look?" The young store manager's expression was a little surprised, and he looked at the photo just now again.

"It is indeed this person," the store manager returned the photo to him. "Actually, I encountered a little trouble that day. Maybe it is an exaggeration to say trouble." "What trouble?" Hearing Kusanagi's question, the store manager looked around, put his face close to him and said, "A bug flew into this customer's drink." "insect?" "It was a small moth, two centimeters long, that landed in her iced tea." "Is she yelling too much?" "No." The store manager shook his head. "I happened to be next to her at the time. She called me over and told me the incident in a low voice without disturbing other customers. We immediately changed her drink."

"There is such a thing." Kusanagi thought to himself, why didn't Yajima Takako tell the police about this?Even if she couldn't remember the name and location of the store, if she really wanted to provide proof of her alibi, she should have spoken about it. "Excuse me," Makita asked the shopkeeper, "you usually don't charge customers in this situation, right?" "Of course. But at the time, the customer had to pay for everything, so we just let it go." "You have to pay for everything... right?" Kusanagi stared at a customer who was paying at the front desk, and the customer took the cash receipt from the cashier.

Her aim was the cash register—he knew it right away. After coming out of the coffee shop, the two of them walked towards Yajima's house.Takako has returned. Seeing the small powder box, a trace of excitement appeared on her face. "So I forgot it in that store? Where am I still thinking?" Kusanagi also mentioned to her about the moth falling into the iced tea, and she showed an expression of just remembering it. "Oh, there is such a thing, why didn't I think of it at the beginning? Well, a small moth did fly in, but because I didn't drink that cup of tea at all, I didn't take it seriously."

"If you had thought of this earlier, you wouldn't have to go back and forth to the police station so many times." Kusanagi said tentatively. "Yeah. But I was totally out of sorts and out of control. I'm so sorry." She bowed her head in apology. When leaving Yajima's house, Kusanagi happened to meet Akiho returning, and her steps looked a little heavy.Only then did Grass Pheasant remember that he hadn't asked the little girl yet. "Hello." Kusanagi greeted her, and Qiusui looked at the criminal policeman in front of him and stopped in his tracks with a vigilant expression.

"Just finished school?" he asked with a smile on his face. "Have you found the prisoner?" Qiusui looked serious and spoke like an adult. "We are conducting various investigations. If you have any clues, please let us know." Hearing what Kusanagi said, the little girl pouted. "No one will believe what I say." "No. How? Is there anything you want to tell us?" Akiho looked at Kusanagi's face: "You will never believe me." "I said no, let's pull the hook." After hearing Kusanagi's words, she hesitated at first, but she still spoke.

The adults really couldn't believe what she said. Kusanagi echoed the sound, but in his heart he was thinking: Will-o'-the-wisp?She must have misread something, since it has nothing to do with the case anyway. After listening to Kusanagi's report, their boss, Police Officer Mamiya, had a tense face.The evidence of Yajima Takako's alibi is very complete, and her whereabouts from going out to returning home are basically proved.Although there are a few gaps of 20 to 30 minutes, that time is not enough to commit crimes. "It seems to be back to the original point. At first, I always thought his wife was suspicious, but now..." Jian Gong had an expression of unwillingness to give up.

Mamiya focused on her not because she did not have an alibi before, but because the police found out that most of Yajima Tadaaki's personal insurance had only been covered in the past few months. "There is one thing I still can't understand. It's reasonable to leave the powder box in the store and never notice it, but the bug flying into the drink should have left a deep impression on her. She was caught When you ask about the alibi, you should bring this up first." "That being said, if she insists that she didn't think about it for a while, we can only believe it?" Jiangong said with a straight face, "Could it be that...she has a male accomplice?"

This is also a valid speculation in the search of the headquarters, but no such man was found beside Takako Yajima. "The blood types of the workers of Nojima Industry, two are type A, one is type 0, and there is no type B." Makita said. "Judging from the current situation, the prisoner's blood type should be type B. This is deduced from the analysis of the cigarette butts left in the ashtray at the scene. The blood type of the victim Tadaki Yajima is type 0, and he does not smoke." This cigarette butt can be said to be the only remnant of the prisoner.While two cans of coffee were also found in the room, fingerprints had been wiped off one, as had the door handle. In addition, Tadaki Yajima's activities were also found at the scene, and there were only some company documents in the bag. That night, Kusanagi came to the ramen restaurant next to the police station very late, and was eating noodles when his cell phone rang, and it was Yu Chuan calling. "How's the progress?" Tang Chuan's tone was slow. "It's a stalemate. Takako Sakishima gave us an unexpected 'counterattack'." Kusanagi briefly explained how she produced her alibi. "It's really interesting," Tang Chuan said with great interest, "The organ has slowly surfaced." "Organ?" Kusanagi gripped the phone tightly. "There is something I want to show you, come to my laboratory tomorrow night." "Don't be foolish, just tell me now." "Seeing is better than hearing a hundred times. See you tomorrow." "Ah, wait!" Kusanagi hurriedly said, "There is something that you might be interested in, do you want to hear it?" "That depends on what the content is." "What you must want to hear is the will-o'-the-wisp." "Oh?……" "Want to hear it?" Kusanagi told Yukawa what he heard from Akiho. "Not bad." After listening, Tang Chuan said on the other end of the phone, "Then I look forward to meeting you tomorrow." "Hey, wait!" When Kusanagi called him again, the phone had already been hung up.