Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Songgong opened the file and looked up the relevant information of the Maehara family. "A forty-seven-year-old company employee, his wife, and a demented old lady... you mean the murderer was among them? Then the rest of the family didn't know? Do you think one of them can hide it from the family? Did human eyes commit the crime?" "No, it shouldn't be possible." Kaga replied immediately, "So if one of them is the murderer, the others are probably covering up and concealing his crime, and I originally thought that there were at least two people involved in this case. participate."

Hearing Kaga's assertion, Matsumiya couldn't help looking into his eyes.As if reacting to this, Kaga took out something from his bosom, which turned out to be a photograph. Songgong took the photo and found that it was the victim who was wearing sneakers on both feet. "Is there any problem?" Song Gong asked. "The way to tie the shoelaces." Kaga replied, "If you look closely, you will find that the shoelaces on the two feet have subtle differences in the way of tying them. Although they are both butterfly-shaped, the positional relationship of the shoelaces is reversed. And one side is tied very firmly, and the other side is quite loose, and generally the same person will not have different situations when the left and right sides are tied.”

"After you said that..." Matsunomiya moved his face closer to the photo and stared at it for a while, Kaga was indeed right. "The identification department seems to say that there are traces showing that both shoes have fallen off? Although we don't know the specific reason, can we analyze that these shoes were put on by two people separately?" Matsumiya muttered inadvertently. "Is the family conspiring to commit the crime?" "Even if the killing was done by one person, we can infer with absolute certainty that his family is helping him hide his crime."

While returning the photo to Kaga, Matsumiya looked at him again and again. "What's wrong?" Kaga asked in surprise. "No, nothing." "So, I'm going to investigate and visit the former Yuan family now." "Let me go with you too." "I was really relieved to get the consent of the first search department." Matsumiya catches up with Kaga who is taking the lead, feeling admiration spontaneously in his heart. Opposite Maehara's house lived a family named Ota. Their house was very new and clean, and they didn't have a lawn.After pressing the bell of the walkie-talkie, Matsunomiya introduced himself.The housewife who came out of the porch looked about thirty-five or six years old.

"We would like to ask you about the situation of the Maehara's family." Song Gong said straight to the point. "what's the situation?" The housewife's expression was very surprised, and there was a look of curiosity in her eyes.Song Gong thought, it should be easy to get words out of the other party's mouth. "Did anything unusual happen to their family recently? Just in the past two or three days." Hearing Songgong's question, the housewife thought about it. "Speaking of which, it seems that I haven't seen them for a while. I talked to the wife of that family before. Excuse me, is it related to the case where the girl's body was found?" She quickly asked.

Matsunomiya waved his hand with a wry smile. "It is inconvenient for us to disclose the details, sorry. Then do you know the male master of the Maehara family?" "Well, I said hello a few times." "What kind of person is he?" "Well...he's a very honest person. Maybe it's because of his wife's aggressive personality that he left that impression on people." "They have a son in middle school, don't they?" "You mean Naomi-kun, right? Well, I know him." "What kind of child is it?" "Well, a very ordinary boy, not very active. I've known him since he was in elementary school, but I don't think I've seen him outside to play. Almost every kid in the neighborhood plays ball in front of my house. Hit the ball into our yard once or twice, but I don't remember Naomi-kun doing that."

It seems that she doesn't know about Maehara Naomi's recent situation. Just when Songgong felt that he could not find any useful information from her and was about to end the conversation, the other party suddenly said, "His family is really not easy." "Why do you say that?" "It's not because their old lady is like that..." "Oh……" "Ms. Maehara once told me that she should be sent to a nursing home even if it is for the sake of the elderly, but it is difficult to find a place that can accept her and have a space. Even if she is found, her husband and his relatives on the other side It will not give her a good look. It is so sudden, people become so stupid, oh no, is she suffering from Alzheimer's disease? The old lady was also a very capable person before, after living with her son Changed, became like that."

Matsumiya has also heard of cases of dementia caused by changes in the surrounding environment. It may be that those old people cannot bear such changes psychologically. "But," a meaningful smile appeared on the housewife's face at this moment, "Although their family is indeed not easy, many families have elderly people with dementia, right? Compared with those families, Maehara's family is still good. .” "What do you mean by that?" "It's not because Mr. Maehara's younger sister comes to take care of the old lady every night. I think it's more difficult for his younger sister."

"Mr. Maehara's younger sister? Does she live nearby?" "Well, she opened a clothing store in front of the station, and the name of the store seems to be 'Tajima'." "What about Friday night?" Kaga, who had been silent until now, suddenly interjected, "Did his sister come that night?" "Friday night? Well, well..." The housewife shook her head after thinking about it for a while, "I don't know about that." "That's right." Kaga nodded with a smile. "Ah, but after you mentioned it," said the housewife, "it seems to me that she hasn't come in the past two days. His sister always comes by car, even though it's a small car. I often see her parked at the door, But I haven’t seen her car in my impression from yesterday to today.”

"Car, um..." Kaga was still smiling, but he was obviously thinking. Songgong felt that he could not get any more clues from the housewife, so he said: "It's really disturbing you in the midst of busy schedule..." After that, he was naturally going to say thank you. However, Kaga was the first to ask, "Then what about the Tanaka family?" "Huh? Tanaka?" The housewife put on a puzzled expression of Monk Zhang Er, and Matsumiya was also puzzled, he couldn't remember who Tanaka was. "It's the Tanaka house diagonally across." Kaga pointed to the house on the left side of the Maehara house and said, "About that family, have you noticed anything wrong recently? Please tell us even if it's a little thing, I remember them The man of the house used to be the head of the block."

"Well, we did say hello to them when we moved in, but that was a long time ago." After Kaga asked two or three questions about the family surnamed Tanaka, he asked about the other houses around, and the housewife's expression gradually became impatient. "Why do you ask about the situation of several other families?" After leaving the housewife's house, Matsunomiya asked, "I can't think of any point in doing so." "That's right, it's really meaningless." Kaga replied concisely. "Ah? Then why do you..." Kaga stopped and looked at Matsumiya. "Now we have no definite evidence to prove that the former Yuan family is related to the case. This view is only based on reasoning that is almost on paper. We may also be seeking information about innocent people. Considering this, in order to avoid causing harm to them Adverse effects necessitate maximum effort." "A bad effect?" "After accepting our questioning, the housewife's impression of the Maehara family has definitely changed. You should have seen her curious eyes, right? It's hard to guarantee that she won't embellish the questioning. Spread it everywhere. Rumors will continue to grow and gradually affect the normal life of the former original family. Even if the murderer is someone else and brought to justice, the rumors that have been scattered are difficult to eliminate. I think we should not create such Victims come, even for the investigation of the case." "That's why you even asked about irrelevant families..." "After listening to my subsequent questions, the housewife should no longer have any special views on the Maehara family, and may even think that we will also inquire about her family's situation elsewhere." Matsumiya lowered her eyes. "I've never thought about it that deeply." "This is my way of doing things, and you don't have to imitate them one by one. Let's not talk about this." Kaga turned his face and cast his gaze at the Qianyuan family. "What is concerning is that his sister didn't come." "Is that the sister who came to take care of the old lady?" "When we went to his house just now, Akio Maehara said that the old lady was making a fuss. If there is someone who is in charge of taking care of her, then she should be called to help, but why didn't he do that?" "Could it be because his sister is not at home?" "Let's go check it out." They hailed a taxi and got off in front of the station.The clothing store "Tajima" is not far from the corner of the bus road. The products sold in the store seem to be mainly women's clothing and accessories for housewives.A woman in her forties was standing inside the store, typing on the keyboard of an electronic calculator.She looked back and saw Songgong and the others coming in, so she greeted them with a puzzled expression, probably because two men rarely walked into such a shop together. After Songgong showed her police ID card, her expression became even more rigid. "We heard that Mr. Akio Maehara's sister is here." "I am." "Ah, hello, what is your name?" "My name is Tajima Harumi." The other party reported his family name. "Mr. Maehara lives with his mother, Ms. Maehara Masae, right?" "Did something happen to my mother?" Tajima Harumi's eyes became disturbed. Song Gong asked her if she had taken care of her mother recently, and as expected, the other party replied that she hadn't been there for two or three days. "I went there just now, but my brother told my mother that she is in good health these past few days, and she is also very peaceful, saying that I don't need to stay today." "You're in good health? Huh? But..." Song Gong remembered that Akio said that his mother was having trouble again, which made him feel very helpless.But just when Matsumiya was about to say this, Kaga poked his side abdomen with his fingers, and Matsumiya gave him a surprised look. Kaga pretended to know nothing and asked Chunmei: "Does this happen often?" She recalled for a moment. "No, never before. . . . Excuse me, what is this investigation about? Is something wrong with my brother's house?" "Do you know about the discovery of the girl's body in Ginkgo Park?" Kaga asked. "Related to that case?" Chunmei's eyes widened. Kaga nodded. "The murderer may have used a car, so we are investigating suspicious vehicles nearby. Then we heard that there are always cars parked in front of Mr. Maehara's house, so we wanted to check with you." "That car is mine, sorry because there is nowhere else to park." "No, we won't talk about that today. But it's not easy for you. You have to go to take care of your mother every day." "It's not that serious. It's a change of mood for me." Tajima Harumi said with a smile.Because of her thick eyelids, her eyes narrowed into a line when she smiled. "However, it is not easy to take care of the elderly who suffer from that kind of disease, right? I heard that some patients would make a lot of noise when they are unhappy." Kaga said in a chatty tone. "Maybe there are such patients, but my mother doesn't know it, and it's better for relatives to take care of the elderly." "So this is ah." Kaga nodded and gave Matsumiya a wink, and Matsumiya thanked Harumi Tajima. "You should report to Director Kobayashi." After walking out of the shop, Kaga said. "You don't need to tell me, I'm planning to do the same." Songgong said and took out his mobile phone. The intercom bell rang again. This was the fourth time today, and the two times the police came to the door. And this time it was them again. Akio who answered on the walkie-talkie finished with a heavy heart and put down the receiver. "The policeman again?" Yaeko asked nervously. "Yes." he replied. "Then we will do as we discussed earlier?" "Wait a minute, we don't know the purpose of their trip yet. If there is really no other way, I will take the lead and proceed as planned." Yaeko didn't nod, but clasped her hands in front of her chest as if praying. "what happened to you?" "No... just don't know if everything will go well." "Why are you still talking about these things now, now you can only bite the bullet." Yaeko nodded tremblingly, agreeing in a low voice. Akio came to the entrance, opened the door and saw that the two policemen standing outside were Kaga and Matsumiya. "I'm very sorry for disturbing you so many times." Song Gong said with a look of embarrassment. "What's going on this time?" "We investigated the whereabouts of the murdered girl, and some people said that she had been in this area." Hearing what Matsumiya said, Akio felt his body temperature rise, but there was a chill down his back. "And then?" he continued. "We want to check with your family to see if they have seen this girl before." Song Gong took out the photo, and it was the girl printed on it. "I remember I already answered this question to the police officer next to you this morning." Akio glanced in Kaga's direction. "I only got your answer at that time, right?" Kaga said, "We also want to confirm with your family." "I've confirmed it with my wife." "Well, but, don't you have a son who is in junior high school?" Suddenly hearing the other party mention Naomi, Akio's heart tightened. He finally understood that the police knew the composition of every family member in every household. "I don't think my son knows anything about it." "It could be, but we want to make sure nothing goes wrong." "Please." Song Gong also begged beside him. "Then can you lend me the photo? I'll ask him." "About this," Song Gong said while handing over the photos, "please tell us in as much detail as possible what time your family members were at home yesterday." "Excuse me, what is it for?" "Because the victimized girl may have walked on the grass, we came to collect lawn samples during the day to determine where the grass was." "You mean that's my lawn?" "No, we don't know yet, but if the girl entered your yard without authorization yesterday, then there should be no one in your house at that time, so we want to confirm whether there is such a time period." "I'm sorry, we not only need to learn from Mr. Maehara, but also from people around us." Kaga smiled flatteringly. Akio doubted the authenticity of the other party's words. Didn't they just come to investigate their own home?But if you hold on to this question, it will arouse the suspicion of the other party.He took the photo, turned and entered the house. "What, what's going on?" Yaeko's face turned livid after hearing Akio's message. "Isn't this an alibi investigation?" "I also thought about this possibility, but it has nothing to do with the time when I'm not at home." "Does it look like the police are suspicious of us?" "It's a bit like it, but maybe I'm overthinking." "Then what shall we do? How shall we answer?" "I'm thinking about it." "Don't let them suspect Naomi, how about we just say he stays at home after school?" Akio thought about it, looked at Yaeko and shook his head. "It could be bad." "why?" "To think about the future, we may have to implement the plan, right?" "so what?" "We have to start planning from now on." Akio took the photo and returned to the entrance. The two police officers just now were still standing outside the door maintaining their original posture. "How is it?" Kaga asked. "My son also said he has no impression of this girl." "Really, can you tell us when your family returned home yesterday?" "I got home around seven thirty." "Excuse me, I want to ask, where is your company?" Akio told the other party that his company is in Kayaba Town, and the off-duty time is 5:30, and he stayed at the company until 6:30 yesterday. "Were you alone at the time?" "I did the work alone, but there were some other staff who stayed on." "Are they in the same department as you?" "There are colleagues from my department, and there are also some people from other departments, because we share the same floor." "That's right, I'm sorry, can you tell us their names and departments?" Kaga still put on a pleading gesture. "I'm not lying." "No, no," Kaga quickly waved his hand, "I didn't mean that, this is the procedure for the police to handle a case. We must first understand the situation from myself, and then confirm it from other aspects, and then our work is complete. Oh, You can take it as an unkind businessman's business." Akio sighed. "You can go and confirm that Yamamoto from another department next to us was also there, as well as two or three people from our class." Akio provided their names and departments to the police. At this time, he was convinced that the police were investigating the alibi of the former family members, and that the lawn might really be the key clue. Akio's alibi should be confirmed, but this will not help the Maehara family, it will only narrow down the range of suspects. Their investigations will become sharper in the future, and it is impossible to get away with improvised lies.If they had seriously interrogated, Naomi would have easily confessed to his crime. "What about your wife?" Kaga's question continued. "She went out to do odd jobs, and she said she came back around six o'clock. The place where she works is—" After Kaga wrote down Akio's words, he asked casually, "Where's your son?" Finally the moment came, and Akio tightened his abdominal muscles. "After he left school, he wandered around outside. I think it was past eight o'clock when he got home." "After eight o'clock? Junior high school students coming home so late?" "Yeah, it's shameful, I will teach him a lesson." "Is he out there alone?" "It seems to be. He won't say it specifically, but anyway, it's going to a game room or something." Kaga looked at the record in his hand with a suspicious expression, and when he raised his head, his face was full of smiles again. "And what about your old lady?" "The old lady," Zhaofu said, "she seemed to have caught a cold yesterday and fell asleep all the time, and you know her condition. Even if someone broke into my yard without authorization, she couldn't do anything." "Cold... But today I don't see anything wrong with her." "I had a really bad fever the night before." "That's right." "Is there anything else you want to ask?" "No, that's all. I'm sorry to bother you so late." After confirming that the two police officers were out of sight, Akio closed the door. When he returned to the dining room, he found Yaeko on the phone. She covered the receiver and said to Akio, "It's Chunmei." "What's up?" "She said she had something to ask us..." Akio answered the phone with an ominous premonition: "It's me." "Ah, I'm Chunmei." "What's wrong?" "The police came to me just now and asked me about my mother." This surprised him, and the police finally even found Chunmei. "Mother's business?" "To be precise, it's about the fact that I didn't go to your place from yesterday to today. They asked me why, and my answer was that my brother said that I don't need to go. Is it okay to say that?" "Well, it doesn't matter if you just answer like that." "Their explanation was that I always parked outside, so they came to me to investigate suspicious vehicles or something." "They have also come to my house several times, and it seems that the entire block is under investigation." "Really? It feels really annoying. By the way, how is Mom? Did you give her the sandwich I bought just now?" "She's fine, don't worry." "Ok." After hanging up the phone, Akio lowered his head heavily. "His father..." Yaeko came up to talk. "There's nothing else to do," he said. "Make up your mind." It was almost eleven o'clock at night when Matsumiya and Kaga left the police station together.He originally planned to spend the night in the office, but Kobayashi said that he didn't need to work to such an extent today.If you are too tired at the beginning, you will not be able to fight a protracted battle. This is the director's suggestion. "Brother Gong, what are you doing next?" Song Gong asked. "Go straight home and make some preparations for tomorrow, why do you remember to ask this?" "No, I want to ask... Can you accompany me to a place, and it will only take about thirty minutes." "where do you want to go?" Song Gong hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Go to Ueno." Kaga's face darkened. "If that's the case, then I'm free." "How can you say no..." "Don't be late tomorrow, it will be a critical day." Matsumiya looked at Kaga who turned to leave, and shook his head helplessly.