Chapter 38 chapter 2

Just heard that a dead body was found again, Kusanagi didn't even have the mood to rush to the scene.Needless to say, those of his colleagues thought so too.Everyone's expressions seemed to say: Criminals should also exercise restraint. The scene of the crime was in a room in a six-story apartment building in Suginami Ward.The apartment is exclusively rented out to singles and is one-bedroom except for the topmost house which is a two-bedroom structure.The body is in room 205.The layout of this room is that after entering the door, there is a narrow corridor, which contains the kitchen and European-style bedrooms.

The deceased was a woman, lying in a narrow hallway, wearing a black T-shirt and cotton miniskirt, with no makeup on her face.She was lying face down with her head toward the door.Seeing this scene, one of the criminal policemen immediately said that maybe she was entangled with some man and was killed by him.Kusanagi felt that this was not necessarily a wild idea. The identity of the deceased was quickly identified because there was a handbag in the room with a driver's license in it, and the person in the photo and the deceased were probably the same person.The name written on the license is Nagatsuka Takeko.It was soon confirmed that she did indeed live in this room.According to her date of birth records, she just turned twenty-eight last month.

The first person to notice the abnormality was a white-collar worker living next door.She passed room 205 almost every day, but when she came home last night, she smelled a disgusting smell.She knew that the person living in No. 205 was a girl, and thought it might just be some accidental smell, so she didn't pay much attention, and went back to her room directly.The next morning, this morning, the stench was even more pungent.The administrator does not often live in this apartment, so she had no choice but to use her mobile phone to report the matter to the apartment administrator on the way to work.

The property company that received the complaint dispatched a manager at two o'clock in the afternoon.He had called number 205 before coming, but Takeko Nagatsuka didn't seem to be at home, and the call was transferred to voice mail. The person in charge of management guessed that she went on a trip, or went out for some reason and was away for a long time.During this period, if the domestic garbage is corrupt, it will naturally smell bad.This kind of thing is common in hot weather, so when he got the key to this room, he also prepared garbage bags and masks. In fact, he didn't need to bring keys and garbage bags at all. The door to 205 wasn't locked at all, and the stench of putrefaction wasn't from the garbage.

It was a smart move for him to open the door wearing a mask.If he hadn't, he would have vomited on the spot, and the subsequent search would have been hampered.Even so, when everyone was carrying the body out, the person in charge found a place to vomit out the contents of his stomach. Although the detectives in the first investigation department were used to seeing dead bodies, they still felt that the autopsy was extremely painful in the face of this situation.In order not to get close to the dead body as much as possible, Kusanagi ran directly to the inner room to search.Even so, the rancid smell still followed him, making him want to vomit from time to time.

There were strangle marks on the neck of the deceased, but there were no other traumas.According to the investigation, there were no traces of fighting in the room. "Sure, it was the man who did it." said the criminal policeman wearing white gloves who was rummaging through the trash cans in the room, "The man came to her house and wanted to break up with her, but she didn't want to, crying and begging 'don't do this', but he has already Tired of playing with her, it is likely that the guy has a wife and children, just playing with her. She has been crying and pestering. People are annoying, saying things like 'I and you are over', she also Say hard, 'Break up if you really want to break up so much! Go back to your tigress! But be prepared, I'm going to tell your wife all about us, Tell your company...'The man is in a hurry,'wait! Don't knock like that!''Don't you know? I will do what I say!'The woman shouted hysterically,'I won't listen to it again. Yours!' Look at her dying posture, isn't she calling there? The man cut off her phone and strangled her cruelly. That's how it happened."

This detective, who is one year older than Kusanagi, is named Yuki. He has a problem, that is, he likes to speak out all the things in his mind quickly, and listening to him seems to be one of the pleasures of his colleagues. .Even Mr. Mamiya, who hated other people talking nonsense, was listening to his high-spirited speech with a wry smile. But what he said was not without reason.Once a single woman is killed, the first thing the police have to do is to investigate her heterosexual relationship, which is already a detective routine.Even Kusanagi has been flipping through her correspondence because he wants to know if she has any particular male friends.

Suddenly, Kusanagi's hand stopped.In the envelope, he found a business card that belonged to an insurance salesman named Nobuhiko Kurita.The reason why this caught Kusanagi's attention was because "see you again on the 22nd" was written in the blank space of the business card. "Boss!" He summoned Mamiya and handed him his business card. The chubby Mamiya pinched the business card with those short, fat fingers. "Oh, insurance salesman, on the 22nd..." "Didn't the deceased die around the 22nd?" Kusanagi said, "Today is the 25th."

"It is necessary to talk to him." After finishing speaking, Mamiya returned the business card to Kusanagi. On the evening of the second day after the corpse was found, Kusanagi and Yukiri visited Nobuhiko Kurita's workplace together.There was a reason why they didn't go to him immediately, because afterward they figured out one thing, that is, the date Kurita wrote on the business card on the 22nd was indeed of great significance. On the morning of the 22nd, the deceased Takaeko Nagatsuka and her sister who lived nearby met in a coffee shop. They came to discuss what gifts to buy for their father who was about to retire.My sister also joked that this was really an unplanned expense.

The younger sister clearly remembered that the two sisters ate red bean paste and fruit jelly that day. This is a food that both of them particularly like, and they will definitely remember it correctly. During the judicial autopsy, adzuki beans were indeed found in Nagatsuka Takeko's stomach, probably the adzuki beans that were put in bean paste fruit jelly.According to their digestive status, it can be presumed that she was killed at 1:00 pm, less than three hours after breaking up with her sister.In other words, the presumed time of the crime was between 1pm and 4pm on the 22nd. Before breaking up with her sister in the coffee shop, Nagatsuka Takeko seemed to say "someone will come to see me later", could this person be Nobuhiko Kurita?

In addition, the colleagues of Nagatsuka Tae's subsidiary also said some meaningful words.It is said that Nagatsuka Taeko's boss once introduced her to a blind date with Kurita Nobuhiko, but Keiko seemed dissatisfied.But by chance, Keiko happened to be insured by Kurita Nobuhiko's insurance company, and I heard that he also gave her a lot of benefits. Her colleagues estimated that it may be that Kurita still has no memory of Nagatsuka Takeko, so she has been trying to keep in touch with her. Kurita's workplace is next to Kudanshita Station.Once inside, the young female staff standing at the front desk greeted with a smile.Yukiri introduced herself as a police officer and wanted to talk to Kurita about something, the female staff member said "please wait a moment" without hesitation, and went in. A man in a suit appeared a few minutes later.Although he is short, he is very neatly dressed, his hair is parted, and he has a professional smile all over his face. Even his eyebrows are carefully trimmed. When Kusanagi sees his smooth skin, he immediately thinks that he just took a bath. "Well, next is Nobuhiko Awata." Awata looked at Kusanagi and the others.Kusanagi noticed that there was a clear intention to classify the guests in his eyes, and although he was smiling, he was wary. Gong Qi smiled, walked past the front desk, leaned in front of him and said, "We are the police, and I want to ask you something." Maybe he is a timid person by nature, this sentence made Kurita's face pale with fright. They got out of the insurance company and went to a nearby coffee shop.Yukiri briefly described the matter, and Kurita twitched in fright.He said that he didn't know Nagatsuka Taeko died at all, and wanted to know more about the situation.Even his eyes were bloodshot.Kusanagi thought to himself, if this is all fake, then his acting skills are too amazing. "When was the last time you saw Miss Nagatsuka?" Yukiri asked. "This, that is..." Kurita took out the work log, and opened the page with slightly trembling hands, "It was the 21st, Friday evening, because I had to go through the car insurance renewal procedures with her." "If it's Friday, she should still be working in the company!" "No, I asked her, she was off that day." What Kurita said was true.The cosmetics company where Takeko Nagatsuka worked had no holiday on July 20th, the Marine Memorial Day, so they had a make-up holiday on the 21st. In this way, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be closed for three consecutive days.Although he knew about this situation, he couldn't completely trust him. "Is it really the 21st? Isn't it the 22nd?" Yuki stared at him and asked again. "It's the 21st, absolutely right." Awata said looking at his work log. "Can you show me this?" "Ah, good!" Awata handed the diary to Yumisaki. Kusanagi followed suit and found that although Takeko Nagatsuka's name was written in the column of "July 22nd", it was changed to 21st.When Kusanagi pointed out this question, Awata didn't show a particularly embarrassed look. "At first I planned to go on the 22nd... It turned out that the appointment was on the 15th, but she was not at home when I went on the 15th, so I threw the business card that said I would come back on the 22nd into her mailbox at home. But the next day Nagatsuka called me again and said he wanted me to go on the 21st.” There was nothing too contradictory in what he said, but it would not have been difficult if he had prepared these logical lines in anticipation of the police coming to the door. "According to your schedule," Yumi asked, "you don't seem to have any appointments during the daytime on the 22nd, so where are you?" "The 22nd..." Awata covered his mouth with his hands and thought for a while, "I'm in Komae." "Komae?" "Well, that." Awata rubbed his face frequently, "I was very drunk the first day, and I woke up in a bad mood. I went to the client's place in the morning, and parked the car near the Tama River by the way, and took a rest. " "When?" Yukiri asked, "From what time to what time did you stay there?" "Well, after noon, I took a three-hour break. Can you keep this matter a secret from my company?" "Well, of course." Yuki said while looking at Kusanagi, his expression seemed to say that there was deceit in it. "Is the car owned by the company?" Kusanagi asked. "No, mine." "Can you tell me the model and color of the car?" "The red Mini Cooper..." "Oh? That's a beautiful car! Can you let us see it later?" "Of course..." Although Awata replied, his black eyes were trembling uncomfortably. The next day, Awata was told to wait for the summons at any time because he had obtained more important testimony from nearby residents. That resident lives diagonally across from Nagatsuka Takeko's house, and sells miscellaneous okonomiyaki.Usually, people in this apartment park their cars on the road in front of her small shop, which makes her very dissatisfied.She found that there was a car parked there for two consecutive days from the 21st to the 22nd. She wanted to wait for the owner of the car to come out and complain, but because sometimes she had to entertain guests, the car disappeared without paying attention. The criminal policeman asked what kind of car it was, and the woman over forty-eight immediately replied confidently: "Although I don't know the name, it is a small car, and its shape is very similar to an old-fashioned car." The criminal police found pictures of various cars, and she picked out the Mini Cooper without hesitation, and asserted that it was a red one. The criminal police began to conduct bombing-style interrogations on Awata in turn. Everyone was convinced that he was the murderer, and also believed that during the many interrogations, he must have shown some flaws. But Awata has always refused to admit this crime, facing the criminal police's attack, he almost cried out.He has always denied it, and claimed that the alibi he provided to Kusanagi and Yukiri was true. No way, Kusanagi and the others decided to go to Komae for a field investigation.If Awata really stopped at Komae to rest, there must be witnesses.If this is true.Then the case will be re-investigated. "Hey, maybe it's futile." Gong Qie and the others said in unison. It seems that the predictions of these old detectives are correct. For two whole days, at the parking spot mentioned by Awata, the detectives wandered back and forth, but they didn't meet anyone who had seen the red Mini Cooper.The place is sandwiched by a river, and apart from a food processing factory, there are dead ends everywhere. Awata was indeed lying, he was the murderer, and this idea spread among the criminal police again.At this time, a strange letter arrives at the Suginami Police Station where the headquarters is being searched. The sender is a man who lives in Komae. The content of the letter was shocking enough to cause confusion in the entire search headquarters.