Chapter 15 Section 15

Black tea specialty store "Couse" is located in Daidenma-cho, Nihombashi, on the first floor of an office building, in front of Sutengu Avenue lined with banks.It is conceivable that during everyone's lunch break, the place will definitely be full of white-collar beauties. Kusanagi walked through the glass door, and the first thing he saw was the tea store.He had investigated in advance, and there were more than 50 kinds of black tea in operation here. Behind the store is a tea room.Although it felt neither early nor late at four o'clock in the afternoon, there were still female guests scattered in the room in twos and threes.A few who were flipping through magazines were obviously company uniforms.There is no sign of the male guest here.

A petite waitress in white came up to him. "Welcome. Is it just you?" Her smile was obviously a little jerky.Maybe he didn't look like the kind of person who would come to a black tea specialty store by himself. Kusanagi replied, "I'm the only one."The waiter kept a smile on his face, and took Kusanagi to the seat, which was against the wall. The list of product names is full of names of various black teas that Kusanagi didn't know anything about yesterday, but now he has not only known some of them, but also tasted them himself.This is already the fourth black tea specialty store he has visited.

He beckoned the waitress just now to his side and ordered a cup of milk tea.He heard about it in the last store, it is a kind of tea made by mixing milk with Assam black tea.He liked it enough and thought he might as well have another drink. "Uh, besides, I'm actually in this business." He showed the business card to the waitress, "Could you please call the store manager over? I have something to ask." As soon as she saw clearly what was written on the business card, the smile on the waitress' face disappeared.Kusanagi quickly waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, it's nothing serious, I just want to inquire about the situation of the guests."

"Yes, then I'll ask first." Kusanagi said "Thank you".He originally wanted to ask if smoking is allowed by the way, but he held back because he had already seen the "All seats are non-smoking" sign on the wall. He looked around the store again.The environment in the store is quiet, which makes people feel calm. The tables and chairs are arranged very carefully. Even if there are couples coming together, there is no need to care about other customers around.It's no wonder that Yoshitaka Zhenchai often visits here. But Kusanagi didn't have too much expectation in his heart, because the three stores he visited before also left him with similar impressions.

After a while, a woman in a white shirt and black vest stood respectfully in front of Kusanagi.She looked to be in her mid-thirties, with very light make-up and her hair tied back. "What do you want to do?" "Excuse me, are you the store manager here?" "Yes, my surname is Hamada." "I'm really sorry to interrupt you while you were working. Let's sit down and talk." After letting her sit across from her, Kusanagi took out a photo from his underwear pocket, and the person in the photo was Mashiba Yoshitaka. "We are currently investigating a certain case. May I ask if the person in the photo has been here? I asked about two years ago."

Store Manager Hamada took the photo, looked at it carefully for a while, and finally tilted his head and said, "I feel like I've seen it before, but I'm not sure. After all, there are many customers here every day, and it's not easy to always stare at the faces of customers." Very rude." Her answer was roughly the same as that given by the previous three stores. "Really? I think he should have come with his girlfriend at the time." He added this sentence just to be on the safe side, but she still tilted her head and smiled: "There are usually many couples who visit this store." After speaking, she put the photo on the table.

Kusanagi nodded and smiled at her.This was the reaction he had expected, so it couldn't be said that he was disappointed or not, but the sense of futility in his heart continued unabated. "Is that all you're asking?" "Well, thank you for your cooperation." Just after the store manager Hamada got up and left after listening to Kusanagi's words, the waitress from just now came over with black tea.She was about to put the teacup on the table when she saw a picture on it and stopped. "Ah, sorry." Kusanagi quickly put away the photos on the table.

But she still didn't put down the tea cup, but looked at him and blinked again and again. He asked her "what's the matter". "Did anything happen to the guest in the photo?" the waitress asked cautiously. Kusanagi opened his eyes wide, handed the photo to her again and asked, "Do you know this person?" "It's considered to be acquaintance... used to be a guest here." Manager Hamada seemed to have heard what she said, turned around and walked back. "What you said is true?" "Yes, I don't think there is anything wrong. This customer has been to the store many times."

Her tone was uncertain, but it seemed she was confident in her memory. "Can I delay her for a while?" Kusanagi asked Hamada store manager. "Ah, yes." At this time, a new customer just entered the store, so the store manager Hamada turned around to greet him. Kusanagi asked the waitress to sit down opposite him, and began to ask her, "When did you meet this guest?" "I remember the first time I saw him was three years ago. At that time, I just came here to work. I couldn't even remember the name of the black tea, which caused him a lot of trouble. That's why I was so impressed."

"Did he come alone?" "No, always with his wife." "His wife? What kind of woman is it?" "Long-haired and pretty. Looks like he's of mixed race." Kusanagi thought, it seems that it is not Mashiba Ayane, because Ayane is a typical oriental beauty. "What about your age?" "About a little over thirty, maybe a little bit older..." "Do they claim to be husband and wife?" The waitress tilted her head and thought about it, and said, "Well... maybe it's my personal feeling. But they do look like a couple, and they have a good relationship. Sometimes it feels like they come here to take a rest on the way home from shopping. .”

"Do you remember anything else about the woman who came with him? Anything trivial." Confusion appeared in the waitress' eyes, and Kusanagi thought that she might be regretting accidentally revealing that she knew the person in the photo. "Maybe it's just my wishful thinking," the waitress stammered. "I think that girl might be a painter." "A painter...a painter?" She nodded, looked up at Kusanagi and said, "She sometimes holds a sketchbook or such a big, boxy box." She compared her hands to a distance of about sixty centimeters, "Flat box." "You haven't seen what's in there, have you?" "I haven't seen it." She lowered her head and said. Kusanagi recalled what Hiromi Wakayama had said before.She said that the women Mashiba Yoshitaka dated at the time were engaged in publishing-related work, and had also published books. When a painter publishes a book, it should be a picture book, but according to Wakayama Hiromi, Mashiba Yoshitaka is annoyed by the other party asking for his impressions after reading it.He thought, if it was a picture album, it shouldn't be too much trouble. "Other than that, what else do you remember?" Kusanagi asked. After thinking about it with her head tilted, the waitress cast a probing look at him: "Could it be that they are not a couple?" "Probably not. Why do you ask that?" "No, it's nothing." She said, putting her hands on her cheeks. "I remember that they seemed to be talking about children, saying that they wanted to have a child early or something. But I'm not sure, maybe I put It's also possible they got mixed up with other couples." Although her tone was still uncertain, Kusanagi firmly believed that the girl's memory was reliable, and she didn't confuse them with others at all.What she said was undoubtedly the situation of Mashiba Yoshitaka and his girlfriend at the time.Finally found a clue, he became a little excited. He thanks the waitress, who sets him free.He reached out to pick up the cup filled with milk tea. The tea was a little cold, but the fragrance of the tea and the sweetness of the milk blended together wonderfully. Just as he drank half a cup of black tea and began to think about how to track down the identity of the female painter, his cell phone rang.Looking at the caller ID, it turned out to be from Tang Chuan.Kusanagi answered the phone while paying attention to the guests around him: "I'm Kusanagi." "It's me, Yu Chuan, is it convenient for you to talk now?" "I can't speak loudly in this place, but it doesn't matter, you just talk. It's really rare that you would take the initiative to contact me. Tell me, what's your business?" "I have something to tell you, can you spare some time today?" "If it's an important matter, it's not that I can't spare a bit of time. What's the matter?" "As for the specific situation, we'll wait until we meet. Now I can only tell you that it's related to your work." Kusanagi sighed, and said, "Are you and Utsumi doing something sneaky again?" "It's because I don't want to be sneaky that I called you this time. Will you see me or not?" Kusanagi thought to himself, I really don't know why this person is always pulling so hard, with a wry smile on his face, he said, "I see. Where can I find you?" "The location is up to you. It's just that you'd better choose a non-smoking place." Tang Chuan said without hesitation. Finally, the two decided to meet at a coffee shop next to Shinagawa Station.It was very close to the hotel where Ayane lived. If what Tang Chuan said could be settled quickly, he planned to go to Ayane again to inquire about the female painter. As soon as he entered the coffee shop, he saw Tang Chuan, who was sitting on the innermost seat in the non-smoking area, flipping through magazines and the like.It was almost winter, but he only wore a short-sleeved shirt.He put the black leather jacket on the chair beside him. Kusanagi walked over and stood opposite him, but he didn't even lift his head. "Why are you watching so hard?" Kusanagi said as he pulled out the chair. With no surprise on his face, Tang Chuan pointed to the magazine he was reading and said, "Reports about dinosaurs. It introduced a technique of scanning fossils with CT." It seemed that he had already noticed Kusanagi's arrival. "Science magazine? What's the use of using CT to scan dinosaur bones?" "It's not bones. CT scans are used to identify fossils." Tang Chuan finally raised his head and pushed up his glasses with his fingertips. "It's the same, aren't those dinosaur fossils just bones?" Tang Chuanmi raised his eyes behind the glasses, and said with great interest: "You really live up to my expectations, and you can always give the answers I expected." "Take fun of me again?" The waiter walked up to the two of them, and Kusanagi ordered a glass of tomato juice. "I've never seen you order this before. Why, are you paying attention to your health?" "It's none of your business. I just don't want to drink black tea and coffee. Come on, what's the matter with you? Let's get straight to the point." "I still want to discuss fossils with you again, forget it." Tang Chuan picked up the coffee cup, "Have you heard the forensics department talk about poisoning methods?" "I've heard that the method you imagined will definitely leave traces, so the possibility of it being used in this case is zero. I didn't expect the detective Galileo to make mistakes." "'Certainly' and 'possibility is zero' are not scientific. By the way, if you conclude that I am wrong just because I put forward a hypothesis other than the correct solution, then you are very wrong. But look at Since you are not a scientist, I will not argue with you." "If you want to use strong words, how about a more direct way of saying it, please?" "I don't even think that I have lost. Overturning the hypothesis itself is a gain, because in this way, the remaining possibilities will become less and less. It is the same as adding drugs to coffee. There is a blockage." The tomato juice was served, and Cao Yong didn't use a straw, so "Gudu" took a sip.He had been drinking black tea before, and the tomato juice gave his tongue a new thrill. "There is only one way." Kusanagi said, "Someone poisoned the kettle. This person is either Hiromi Wakayama, or the person Mashiba Yoshitaka invited to the house on Sunday." "So you deny the possibility of poisoning the water?" Hearing what Tang Chuan said, Kusanagi curled his lips and said, "I trust the forensics department and Kesouyan. They didn't detect any toxic substances from the plastic bottle, which means there was no poison in the water at that time." "Mr. Utsumi thinks that those plastic bottles may have been washed by someone." "I know, she said the victim washed it herself, right? I bet no one in this world would wash an empty water bottle." "But it doesn't mean the possibility is zero." Kusanagi snorted, and said, "Are you planning to bet on such a small possibility? Then it's up to you, I'm going to take my flat road." "I admit that what you are taking now is indeed the safest path, but there are contingencies in everything, and the possibility of tracking down such contingencies is what the scientific world needs." Tang Chuan looked at him with serious and serious eyes. "I have something to ask you," he said. "What's up?" "I want to go to Zhenchai's house again, can you let me in? I know you have the key to their house with you now." Kusanagi glanced at the weird physicist: "What else do you want to see? Didn't you let the inner sea take you to see it two days ago?" "My focus is different now than it was then." "What focus?" "To put it extremely simply, it can be said to be an idea. Maybe I did make a mistake, and I want to confirm it now." Kusanagi tapped the table with his fingertips and said, "What's going on? Make it clear." "I'll tell you after I go there and confirm that I made a mistake. It's also for your own good." Kusanagi leaned back in his chair and sighed: "What is your plan? What kind of deal did you make with Utsumi?" "Transaction? How do you say that?" Tang Chuan chuckled and said, "Don't be suspicious. Didn't I tell you before? It's just this mystery that made me, a scientist, interested and wanted to try to solve it. That's all. Because, once I lose interest, I will stop immediately. Now I am also asking you to let me go to his house again to make a final judgment. " Kusanagi stared closely at the eyes of this old friend in front of him, while Yukawa responded with a nonchalant expression. Kusanagi really didn't understand what was going on in his mind.But this is also often the case.Kusanagi had believed him before without knowing what was going on, and had received his help many times. "I'll call his wife, just wait for me." Kusanagi stood up while pulling out his phone. He took two steps away and dialed the phone.After Ayane answered the phone, he covered his mouth and asked her if he could go to her house again now. "I'm really sorry, there is a place we have to check anyway." He heard Ayane let out a sigh of relief and said, "You don't have to be so polite all the time. Since it's a search, it's only natural. I'll trouble you." "Sorry. I'll help you water the flowers by the way." "Thank you. You have been a great help to me." After making the phone call, he returned to his seat and found that Tang Chuan was looking up at him. "Do you have something to say?" "Isn't it just a phone call? Why are you leaving? Don't you want me to hear something? " "How is it possible? I asked her to agree to let us go to her house, that's all." "Ok--" "What's going on, what's the matter with you?" "No, it's nothing. I was just thinking, the way you called just now, you really look like a salesperson communicating with customers. Does the other party need to make you so careful?" "We want to go to someone else's house when the master is not at home, of course we have to be polite." Kusanagi said and picked up the bill on the table, "Let's go, it's getting late." The two took a taxi in front of the station, and as soon as Tang Chuan got in the car, he opened the science magazine just now. "You just said that dinosaur fossils are bones. There are major gaps hidden in this idea. Because of this, many paleontologists waste a lot of valuable data." Although Kusanagi didn't want to mention this matter again, he still decided to chat with him. "But the dinosaur fossils seen in the museum are really all bones." "Yes, people used to know only to keep the bones and throw everything else away." "What do you mean by that?" "During the excavation, the dinosaur bones were dug out. The scholars jumped for joy and began to dig desperately. They cleaned up the mud sticking to the bones, and then built a huge dinosaur skeleton. It turned out that the jaw of the Tyrannosaurus rex That's right. Its arms are so short. Just like that, they started their investigation, not knowing that they had made a serious mistake. In 2000, a certain research team failed to remove the dirt from the fossil excavated , took it directly for a CT scan, and tried to restore its internal structure to a three-dimensional image. The result was that the heart of a dinosaur was displayed in front of them. That is to say, the mud inside the bones that people removed before is now It completely retains the shape of its organs and tissues when it was alive. Today, using CT to scan dinosaur fossils has become a standard technique for paleontologists." Kusanagi's reaction was a little slow, he said "hmm", and said, "This matter is really interesting, but is it related to this case? Or are you just talking casually?" "When I first learned about this, I thought it was an ingenious trap set for tens of millions of years. We can't blame those scholars who found the dinosaur bones and then removed the mud inside. Because they think The idea that there are only bones left is in line with common sense, and as a researcher, it is reasonable to bring those bones back to the sky and make them into perfect specimens. However, they did not expect that the soil they discarded as useless, It has more significance." Tang Chuan closed the magazine and said, "I don't often talk about the method of elimination? By overthrowing the possible assumptions one by one, the only truth can be found in the end. However, if the If there is a fundamental error in the hypothetical method itself, it will lead to extremely dangerous results. That is to say, sometimes there will be cases where the most important things are excluded instead of focusing on obtaining dinosaur bones.” Kusanagi finally understood that what Yukawa said had nothing to do with the case. "You mean, is there something wrong with our assumptions about the route of poisoning?" "Now I'm going to confirm this. Maybe the murderer is a capable scientist." Tang Chuan said as if talking to himself. Mashiba's house was empty, Kusanagi took out the key from his bag.She has two house keys, which were returned to Ayane at the due time, and Kusanagi once sent them to the hotel for her, but she said that the police might use them again in the future, and she herself has no plans to go home for the time being, so Give one of them to Kusanagi for safekeeping. "Isn't the funeral already over? Why doesn't Ayane go home to enshrine the coffin?" Tang Chuan asked while taking off his shoes. "Didn't I tell you? Because Zhen Chai Yixiao didn't believe in any religion during his lifetime, he held a flower-presenting ceremony instead of the funeral. The body has been cremated. But I heard that even the first seven are not going to be held." "That's right, it's reasonable to say so. Let's do the same when I die." "It's a good idea. I'll preside over your funeral." As soon as he entered the room, Tang Chuan went straight down the corridor.Seeing him go away, Kusanagi went up the stairs and opened the bedroom door of Mashiba and his wife.He pushed open the glass door of the balcony in the house, and picked up the large watering pot at hand, and this pot was exactly the one he had just bought back from the general store when Ayane asked him to water the flowers two days ago. He took the jug down to the first floor.Walking into the living room, he stretched his head to look at the kitchen, only to see Tang Chuan looking under the sink. "Haven't you seen that place before?" He asked behind Tang Chuan. "In your criminal police profession, isn't there a saying called 'one hundred times on the spot'?" Tang Chuan took a picture of the inside with a pen flashlight, and the guy seemed to have his own. "Sure enough, there is no trace of touching." "What the hell are you investigating?" "Back to the original point. Even if we find dinosaur fossils, we can't just clean up the dirt on it this time." Tang Chuan turned his head to look at Kusanagi with surprise, "What did you take?" "Don't you know it just by looking at it, watering pot." "Speaking of which, you also asked Kishitani-kun to pour water last time. Could it be that the order from above ordered you to improve the service at the same time?" "You can say whatever you want." Kusanagi pushed Yukawa away, turned on the faucet, and put the gushing water into the watering pot. "That jug is big enough. Isn't there a hose in the yard?" "Take this water to water the flowers on the balcony on the second floor, where there are many pots on the balcony." "That's really hard work for you." Kusanagi ignored Yukawa's sarcasm, turned around and walked out of the room, went to the second floor to water the flowers on the balcony.Although he couldn't even name a potted flower, he could tell at a glance that each potted flower was a little listless.It seems that it is best to water every two days in the future.He recalled what Ayane said that at least he didn't want the flowers on the balcony to wither. After pouring water, he closed the glass door and left the bedroom immediately.Although I have obtained the permission of the master, I still feel somewhat conflicted in my heart if I stay in someone else's bedroom for a long time. Back on the first floor, I found that Tang Chuan was still in the kitchen, standing with his arms crossed, staring at the sink. "Are you telling me what kind of medicine you sell in this gourd? If you don't tell me, I won't bring you here next time." "Bring me here?" Tang Chuan raised one eyebrow and said, "This is really strange. If your junior didn't come to me before, I wouldn't be involved in this troublesome matter." Woolen cloth." Kusanagi put his hands on his hips, looked back at his old friend and said, "I don't know what Nekai said to you, and it has nothing to do with me. It's the same today. If you want to investigate, why don't you just go to her? Why are you here?" Find me?" "The so-called discussion is only meaningful if it is held among those who hold the opposite opinion." "You object to my approach? Didn't you just say that I was safe?" "I am not opposed to your pursuit of a safe road, but I cannot approve of your indifference to an unstable road. As long as there is still a little possibility, it should not be easily dismissed. I have not said it many times huh, just staring at the bones of dinosaurs while discarding dirt is dangerous." Kusanagi shook his head repeatedly and asked, "What do you mean by mud?" "It's water." Tang Chuan replied, "The poison is poured into the water, I still think so." "You mean to say that the victim washed the plastic bottle?" Kusanagi shrugged. "It has nothing to do with plastic bottles. There is water in other places." Tang Chuan pointed to the sink and said, "Turn on the faucet, as much as you want." Kusanagi tilted his head, stared at Yu Chuan's cold eyes and said, "You're not stupid, are you?" "There is such a possibility." "The forensics department has confirmed that the tap water is not abnormal." "The forensics department has indeed analyzed the components of tap water, but the purpose is to determine whether the water left in the kettle is tap water or mineral water. Unfortunately, it is said that it cannot be determined. It is said that the components of tap water are attached to the inside of the kettle due to years of use." "But if there was poison in the tap water, they should have been able to detect it then." "Even if the toxic substance is hidden somewhere in the water pipe, it is likely to have been washed away by the time the forensics department investigates." Kusanagi finally understood the reason why Yu Chuan frequently checked the bottom of the pool. He was to confirm whether there was poison in the water pipe. "The victim only used bottled water to make coffee before his death." "I heard that's the case." Tang Chuan said, "But who told you this?" "It's his wife." After that, Kusanagi bit his lip and stared at Yu Chuan, "Do you even doubt her? Haven't you seen her yet? What did Utsumi teach you?" "She does have her own opinions, but I base my assumptions on objective facts only." "Then according to your hypothesis, the murderer was the wife of the deceased?" "I thought about why she would take the initiative to tell you about the bottled water. There are two situations to consider. One, the victim only drank bottled water during his lifetime. There are two situations that are true and not true. If it is true, then No problem, his wife's move is purely to assist in the search. Although Utsumi-kun looks like this, he still doubts his wife, but I don't think the question will be so extreme. The bigger problem is if it is not true. Now that the Telling such a lie, then his wife must be related to the murder, and then we have to think about the benefits of her lying. So I imagined how the police would conduct a search based on the testimony about the bottled water. Tang Chuan licked his lips and continued, "First of all, the police inspected the plastic bottle, but no toxicity was detected. On the other hand, it was detected from the kettle. Therefore, the police concluded that the murderer poisoned the kettle. The possibility is very high. In this way, his wife has an impregnable alibi." Kusanagi shook his head like a rattle: "You're not right. Even without his wife's testimony, the forensics department has already investigated tap water and bottled water. On the contrary, because of the testimony of only drinking bottled water, His wife's alibi is not valid. In fact, Nei Hai has not given up on the idea that the murderer poisoned the bottled water." "That's the problem. There are not a few people who think like Utsumi-kun. And I think this testimony about bottled water is just a trap waiting for people like them not to jump into it." "trap?" "People who are suspicious of her wife cannot abandon the idea that bottled water is poisonous, because they feel that there is no other way, but if the murderer used other methods at all, then they are obsessed with bottled water. Those who use water will never be able to find out the truth. Isn’t this a trap? So I was thinking, if it wasn’t bottled water that was used at that time——” In the middle of speaking, Yu Chuan suddenly stopped, and he was surprised He opened his eyes wide and looked behind Kusanagi. Kusanagi turned his head to look, and was as stunned as Yukawa. Ayane was standing at the door of the living room right now.