Chapter 28 Section 28

As soon as Kusanagi entered the door, Yu Chuan couldn't wait to ask him what the result was. Kusanagi was a little overwhelmed, but still told him what he had learned from Inokai. "It was Mashiba Yoshitaka who took the initiative to strike up a conversation at that time, so the inference that Mrs. Ayane of Utsumi used a blind date party to get close to Mashiba Yoshitaka can be completely overturned." Kusanagi glanced at the junior female detective beside him, and said. "It's not a deduction yet, I'm just saying that there is such a possibility." "Really? But, let me tell you, this possibility has disappeared. Well, what are your plans for the next step?" Kusanagi said, staring at Kaoru Utsumi.

Yu Chuan handed him the coffee he poured earlier. Kusanagi said "Thank you" and took the cup. "Then what do you think?" Yukawa asked, "If you believe what the lawyer surnamed Inokai said is true, then Mrs. Ayane met Mr. Mashiba for the first time at the party. Also In other words, the fact that she is the friend of Mr. Mashiba's ex-girlfriend is also purely coincidental. Do you think this is plausible?" Kusanagi didn't answer his question right away, but took a sip of coffee and organized his thoughts again. Tang Chuan smiled slightly: "It seems that you don't believe what the lawyer said either."

"I don't think Inokai is lying," Kusanagi said, "but there is no evidence that what he said is true." "Then what do you mean?" Kusanagi adjusted his breath and said, "Maybe someone is playing a show." "A play?" "They acted out a first meeting scene. The two of them had been in a relationship before, and to hide it, they acted out a scene where they met at a party. And pig feed was brought in as a witness , Thinking about it this way, everything makes sense. Just because of a mobile phone bag on the bar, the two hit it off? Isn’t this a coincidence?”

"Wonderful," Yu Chuan's eyes sparkled, "I feel the same way. Let's also seek advice from women." After finishing speaking, he turned to look at Kaoru Utsumi. She nodded too. "I think it's possible. But why would they do it?" "That's right, why do the two of them need to act in such a scene?" Tang Chuan looked at Kusanagi and said, "What do you think of this?" "The reason is simply because they can't tell the truth about what happened." "The truth of the matter?" "It's the actual opportunity for the two to meet. I think they probably met through Junko Tsukui. But they dare not say so publicly. Junko is Mashiba Yoshitaka's ex-girlfriend after all. They need Created another opportunity to fake a first encounter, so I took advantage of that blind date party.”

Tang Chuan snapped his fingers: "The reasoning is good, there is no room for refutation. So when did they actually meet? No, no, what matters is when they formed a deep relationship. Specifically , before Junko Tsukui committed suicide, or after?" Kaoru Utsumi took a deep breath, stared straight at Yukawa and said, "It means Junko Tsukui committed suicide after Mr. Mashiba started dating Mrs. Ayane?" "It's better to imagine it this way. At that time, she was betrayed by a man and a friend at the same time, and the blow she suffered can be imagined." Hearing Yuchuan's words, Kusanagi felt his heart fall into a bottomless abyss of darkness.The old friend's reasoning in front of him didn't make him feel that it was whimsical. Ever since he heard Zhu Zi's words, such suspicion had also emerged in his heart.

"In this way, the meaning of the blind date party will become clearer." Utsumi Kaoru said, "Even if someone knows the relationship between Mr. Mashiba and Ms. Tsukui Junko, and at the same time learns that Ms. Tsukui and Mrs. Ayane They are friends, but as long as there is a witness like Inokai, everyone will only regard the relationship between the two of them as a pure coincidence, and will not think of any connection with the suicide of Ms. Tsukui that happened a few months ago." "Yes, the accuracy of reasoning has improved a lot." Tang Chuan nodded with satisfaction.

"How about you go to Mrs. Ayane to confirm?" Utsumi Kaoru turned to look at Kusanagi. "How do you want me to confirm?" "For example, Kusanagi-senpai, how about showing her the picture book you found last time? The tapestry painted on it is unique in this world. It's impossible for Mrs. Ayane to say that she doesn't know Ms. Junko. " Kusanagi shook his head: "It is estimated that Mrs. Ayane will only answer me like 'I don't know, and I have no clue'." "But……" "Before she kept it from everyone. She never mentioned Mashiba Yoshitaka's ex-girlfriend, nor did she mention that the girl was her own friend. Even if she read the picture book now, she will not change. If you do so, you will only scare the snake away.”

"I agree with Kusanagi's point of view." Yu Chuan walked to the side of the chessboard and picked up a black chess piece, "If you want to drive the murderer to a dead end, you must completely defeat the opponent in one fell swoop. If there is a slight delay, I am afraid that you will never be able to defeat the murderer." Dead her." Kusanagi looked at his old scholar friend and said, "You still think she is the murderer?" But Tang Chuan didn't answer him, but looked away and stood up: "The key depends on the next situation. Assuming that the Zhenchai couple did have such a past, how does this matter relate to this case? Or, besides the poison of arsenic, is there any other connection?"

"As far as Mrs. Ayane is concerned, she did not hesitate to force her good friend to commit suicide in order to get together with Mr. Mashiba. Unexpectedly, Mr. Mashiba betrayed her. How can you ask her to forgive him? Kaoru Utsumi said with a pensive look on his face. "Indeed, this kind of psychology is not incomprehensible." Tang Chuan nodded. "No, I think she should have other ideas." Kusanagi said, "She once betrayed her friend and robbed her boyfriend, but this time it was her turn to be betrayed by her assistant and her husband was robbed .” "You want to say that this is karma? That's why Mrs. Ayane has also given up, and she feels that her fate should be like this, and she won't hold any resentment towards her husband and his mistress. Is that what you want to say?"

"That's not what I meant..." "After hearing what you two said just now, there is one thing that makes me wonder," Yukawa stood with his back against the blackboard, his eyes moving back and forth between the two faces, "Why did Mr. Mashiba Yoshitaka get rid of Junko Tsukui at that time?" , and go to Mrs. Ayane?" "That was just a simple change of heart—" Kaoru Utsumi covered his mouth with his hand in the middle of speaking, "No, that's not the case..." "No." Kusanagi said, "I'm afraid it's because he can't conceive a child. Mashiba Yoshitaka has long made up his mind that once the other party becomes pregnant, he will marry her, but it seems that there is no possibility of pregnancy, so he changed another woman. That must be the case."

"Based on what I have learned before, this seems to be the case. Did Mrs. Ayane know this in her heart at the time? In other words, did she understand that Mr. Mashiba broke up with Ms. Junko Tsukui and chose her own fundamental The reason, but just hope she can bear him a child?" "Well..." Kusanagi stammered. "I think she didn't understand this at the time." Utsumi Kaoru said firmly, "No woman in this world would like to be attracted by the other party for such a reason. Probably before the two got married, Mashiba Yoshitaka Mrs. Ayane came to her senses when she made the promise that she would break up if she could not conceive a child within a year." "I think so too. Well, let's think about the motive now. Just now Utsumi-kun said that Mr. Mashiba's betrayal was the motive, but can his behavior really be called betrayal? After a year, his wife is still He didn’t get pregnant, so he divorced his wife and married another woman—isn’t he just fulfilling the original agreement of marriage?” "It's true, but it's still hard to accept emotionally." Hearing Kaoru Utsumi's words, Yu Chuan smiled slightly: "You can also say that, assuming that Mrs. Ayane is the murderer, then the motive is that she doesn't want to keep the agreement with her husband, isn't that right?" "That's right." "Are you trying to say servant?" Kusanagi asked, staring at his old friend's face. "Let's first imagine Mrs. Ayane's mood before she got married. What kind of mood did she have when she made this appointment? Was she optimistic that she would definitely conceive within a year, or did she feel that even if she didn't conceive? In fact, her husband won't insist on her fulfilling her promise?" "I think it's both." Utsumi Kaoru replied. "So that's it. Then I'm asking you, is it because she thought it's no big deal even if she wasn't pregnant, so she didn't even go to the hospital?" "Hospital?" Kaoru Utsumi asked, frowning. "Based on what you told me before, Mrs. Ayane has never received infertility treatment in this year. I think that since she has reached such an agreement with her husband, she will marry her at the latest. After a few months, you will start running to the obstetrics and gynecology department." "According to what Mrs. Ayane said to Hiromi Wakayama, the couple felt that infertility treatment was a waste of time, so they never considered it from the beginning..." "As far as Mr. Mashiba is concerned, it is indeed the case. It would be quicker to have a new wife than to cause such trouble. But what about Mrs. Ayane? She shouldn't be trying desperately to save her life. straw?" "That's true," Kusanagi murmured. "Why didn't Mrs. Ayane think about going to the hospital? This is the crux of the case." Tang Chuan straightened the glasses with his fingertips, "Just think about it. If you have money and time, you should go to the hospital." If a person refuses to go, what is the reason for it?" Kusanagi pondered.He hoped to think from Ayane's point of view, but he really couldn't think of an answer that could answer Yukawa's question. Kaoru Utsumi stood up suddenly: "It can't be because... it's useless to go there, right?" "It's useless to go, what do you mean?" Kusanagi asked. "Because she knows that even if she goes to the hospital, it won't be cured. At this time, people are not willing to go to the hospital." "That's what happened." Tang Chuan said, "Mrs. Ayane knew that it was useless to go to the hospital, so she didn't go. This assumption is the most reasonable." "You mean, she... Mrs. Ayane suffers from infertility?" "Ms. Ayane is over 30 years old. It is impossible for her not to go to the obstetrics and gynecology department before. The doctor probably told her that her body is not capable of conceiving a child. If this is the case, it is useless for her to go to the hospital .Not only is it useless, but it risks exposing her husband to the fact that she is infertile." "Wait, are you saying that she made such a contract with him knowing that she couldn't get pregnant?" Kusanagi asked. "That's what happened. That is to say, her only hope is that her husband take back his life. Her wish was not fulfilled in the end. He had to fulfill the agreement no matter what, so she chose to kill him. Well, now Let me ask you a question, when did she make up her mind to kill her husband?" "It's not that she learned about the relationship between Mashiba Yoshitaka and Wakayama Hiromi..." "No, that's not right." Kaoru Utsumi interrupted Kusanagi, "If she intends to kill her husband once he fulfills the agreement, then her decision should have been made at the time of the original agreement." "What I'm waiting for is your answer." Tang Chuan's expression returned to seriousness, "In short, it's like this: In fact, Mrs. Ayane has already expected that she will kill her husband within a year. In other words, she might have started preparing to kill him as early as then. " "Are you going to kill him?" Kusanagi opened his eyes wide. Tang Chuan looked at Kaoru Utsumi and said, "Just now you told me the opinion of the forensics department. They think that there is only one way to poison the water purifier, and that is to remove the hose first, and wait until the arsenic is injected. Reconnect it again, right? The forensics department is absolutely correct, indeed. The murderer used this method to inject the poison a year ago." "How could it be..." After finishing speaking, Kusanagi said no A word came out. "But if you do this, the water purifier won't work." Utsumi Kaoru said. "You're right. During this year, Mrs. Ayane never used the water purifier once." "This is weird. There are obviously traces of use on the filter of the water purifier?" "The dirt on it was not accumulated in this year, but in the previous year." Tang Chuan opened the desk drawer and took out a page of documents, "Didn't I ask you to investigate Did you pass the serial number of the filter? I later told the manufacturer the serial number you found, and asked them when the product was put on the market. The answer they gave me was about two years ago, and they also said The filter that was replaced a year ago can't be marked with that serial number. The murderer probably replaced the old filter by himself immediately after asking someone to change the filter of the water purifier a year ago Go back. If the police find the filter is brand new after the murder, her method of poisoning will be seen through immediately. And it was at that moment that she dropped the arsenic." "It's impossible." Kusanagi said, his voice hoarse, "It's absolutely impossible. The poison was injected in advance a year ago, and the water purifier was never used in the following year... There is no such possibility at all. Even if she has never used a water purifier before, there is no guarantee that others will not use it? It is impossible for her to take such a big risk. " "The risk of this method is indeed quite high, but she succeeded in the end." Tang Chuan said calmly, "During this year, whenever her husband was at home, she never went out and never let anyone get close to the clean water." Even when I have a family party, I cook all myself. I often buy some bottled mineral water for backup, in case I don’t have enough water. All of these are all efforts to complete this technique.” Kusanagi shook his head and kept shaking his head: "This kind of thing...is impossible, absolutely impossible. No one in this world would do it." "No, it's very possible." Utsumi Kaoru said, "I investigated Mrs. Ayane's life after marriage according to Mr. Yukawa's instructions, and I also asked Wakayama Hiromi a lot about it. Although I didn't understand it at the time Sensei asked me to investigate these things, but I finally understand. Sensei, the purpose of your doing this is to confirm whether other than Mrs. Ayane have access to the water purifier, right? " "That's the way it is. In the end, the decisive factor is the actions she takes during the days when Mr. Mashiba is resting. I remember someone said that Mrs. Ayane would sit on the sofa in the living room all day long. After I went to her house in person, I found out that she was actually making quilts while watching over her husband to keep him out of the kitchen.” "You are talking nonsense. You are simply fantasizing." Kusanagi said as if moaning. "Theoretically, there is only this method. I have to say that her obsession is astonishing and her willpower is terrifying." Kusanagi was still saying "You're talking nonsense", but his voice gradually became weak. Once upon a time, Inokai once described Ayane's virtuousness to him in this way: "Ayane is a perfect housewife. She quit all her outside jobs and only thought about home affairs. Whenever Mashiba was at home, she Would sit on the couch in the living room making quilts while being ready to serve her husband." Kusanagi also remembered what he had inquired about at Ayane's mother's house.According to her parents, Ayane was originally not good at cooking, but before she got married, she suddenly participated in a cooking training class, and her cooking skills improved a lot.If these episodes were all seen as a ploy by her to keep other people out of the kitchen, the whole case would make sense. "That is to say, if Mrs. Ayane wants to kill Mr. Mashiba one day, she doesn't need to do anything specially, does she?" Kaoru Utsumi said. "That's right, she doesn't have to do anything, she just needs to leave her husband and leave the house. No, she still did one thing, which is to pour out a few bottles of bottled water that she bought before, leaving only Down a bottle or two. When Mr. Yoshitaka was still drinking those bottled water, nothing happened. I guess the first time he made coffee he used bottled water, but the second time he brewed it himself I used the water from the water purifier. Probably because I saw that there was only one bottle of bottled water left, and I planned to save it, so it finally came to the time when the poison that had been inoculated a year ago would exert its power." Tang Chuan picked up the table The coffee cup on the table, "During this year, Mrs. Ayane can poison Mr. Mashiba at any time, but she is always careful not to let him drink the poison by mistake. Most people are doing everything possible She is trying to kill, but this time the murderer is just the opposite. She has devoted all her energy to not killing. There has never been such a murderer. Throughout the ages, domestic and foreign, there is no such thing. Theoretically feasible, but in reality It’s impossible again, so I say it’s an imaginary solution.” Kaoru Utsumi walked up to Kusanagi and said, "Should I arrest and interrogate Mrs. Ayane immediately?" Kusanagi glanced at her expression as if showing off her victory, then turned her gaze to Yukawa's face: "Do you have evidence? Evidence that she did use this method?" Hearing his words, the physicist took off his glasses and put them on the desk beside him. "There is no evidence, and it is impossible." Utsumi Kaoru looked at him in surprise: "Really?" "If you think about it for a while, you can figure it out? If she did something, maybe it would leave traces, but she didn't do anything. Doing nothing is her way of killing people. So even if you want to find her The only physical evidence at the moment is the arsenic detected in the water purifier, but these arsenic cannot be used as evidence. Mr. Utsumi himself explained this point just now. And the filter The serial number can only be used as evidence of the situation. In other words, it is actually impossible to prove that she used tricks." "How could this be..." Nei Hai had nothing to say. "Didn't I tell you before, this is a perfect crime."