Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

Akio Maehara narrated in a natural tone, and he couldn't feel any deliberate acting skills from his words.His expression was contorted with pain, and his voice trembled a little.His wife hung her head aside, sobbing from time to time, and the handkerchief she kept wiping her eyes was soaked with tears. His confession about the abandoned corpse is fully credible, especially when he tried to use the tap of the toilet but couldn’t get water out, so he had to repeatedly hold the water with his hands back and forth.The water system in the toilet where the body was found was indeed faulty, and this information has not been disclosed to the media.

Also, the fear and anxiety he experienced from those actions was completely understandable.Although I thought that the girl's clothes might still be stained with grass, it was only natural for her not to clean up the corpse thoroughly because she wanted to leave that place as soon as possible.As for the grass, it appears to have been brought in when the body was packed into the cardboard box. "The police officers came to my house many times and confirmed the alibi of the family members. At that time, I thought it was impossible to hide it. Then I discussed it with my wife and made up my mind to confess everything to you. I'm so sorry for causing you so much trouble. I think we must also apologize to the girl's parents."

After finishing speaking, Maehara's shoulders immediately drooped. Matsumiya looked at Kaga. "I'm here to get in touch with the department." However, Kaga didn't nod his head, he just put on a thoughtful pose, his expression contained some kind of deep meaning. "What's wrong?" Kaga quickly spoke to Maehara. "Can we meet your mother again?" "Of course it can, but as you can see, it is really difficult for her to communicate normally with people—" However, before Maehara could finish speaking, Kaga stood up. They passed through the corridor as before, and Maehara opened the sliding door of Masae's room.Zheng Hui was still on the corridor on the outdoor side looking into the yard, but no one knew what she was looking at.

Kaga approached her and sat down beside her. "What are you doing?" Kaga's tone was gentle, as if he was talking to a child. But Zhenghui didn't respond, and she didn't feel alert when someone came to her side. Perhaps this was because she was completely unaware of the existence of such a person. "It's useless, Mr. Police," Maehara said, "She can't hear what others say." Kaga turned his head, stretched out his palm to signal the other party to keep quiet, and then turned to Masae with a smile on his face. "Have you seen a girl?"

Masae raised her head slightly, but she didn't seem to be looking at Kaga. "It's raining." She said suddenly. "Hmm." Kaga responded. "It's raining, so I can't go up the mountain today." Song Gong looked out, but there was not even a drop of rain falling outside, only the leaves swaying in the wind. "I can only stay at home and play. By the way, I need to put on makeup first." "It's useless, she just said these inexplicable words, this is a symptom of degenerating into a child." Maehara said. Kaga still didn't stand up, but just stared at Masae.

His gaze moved down slowly, and then he picked up something that had fallen beside Masae, which Matsumiya thought looked like a ball of billowing cloth. "These are gloves." Kaga said, "Is it the pair she picked up at the time?" "I think so." "At that time?" Song Gong asked. "When I came here yesterday, I saw this old lady pick up a pair of gloves, and this is it." Kaga explained. "I don't know why she likes it so much, she wears it on her hand all the time. Maybe she's tired of playing with it now, just like a child, the idea can't be understood at all." Maehara said helplessly.

Kaga looked at the gloves for a while, then folded them neatly again, placed them next to Masae, and then turned his gaze into the room. "Has your mother been in this room all this time?" "Well, except for going to the bathroom, basically." "Did your mother go out after the incident?" Kaga asked. Maehara shook his head. "She hasn't been anywhere. It should be said that she will not be able to go out after she becomes demented." "So that's the case. I would like to ask, where is the room for you and your wife?" "On the second floor."

"Can your mother go up to the second floor?" "Impossible, she had a knee problem a few years ago, and she couldn't go up stairs before she got dementia." Song Gong listened to the conversation between the two, thinking about the meaning of these questions raised by Kahe.He also didn't understand why Kaga didn't let him contact the search headquarters, but it was impossible for him to raise this question in front of Maehara. Kaga stood up and paced the room.He scanned every corner of the room, as if checking for something. "Excuse me, is there any question..." Maehara seemed to be unable to bear it, and opened his mouth to ask.He also seemed unable to understand Kaga's thoughts.

"Has the doll that the girl broke has been disposed of?" Kaga asked. "No, it's still here." Maehara opened the closet and pulled out a box on the lower floor. Song Gong looked inside, and immediately opened his eyes wide.He lifted the whole box and came to Kaga. "Brother Gong, this..." Inside was a doll with a broken arm, the same kind as the one Yuuna Kasugai had collected. Kaga glanced at the box, and asked Maehara, "What's the matter with this doll?" "It should be... last year, I bought it." "You bought it?" "As you can see, my mother has become like a child. She wanted a doll, so I bought her this at the mall. It is said to be a very popular character, but I don't understand it. But my mother didn't seem to like it very much, and kept tucking it in the corner. Then I didn't know why it was turned out again, and it caused a disaster."

Matsumiya thought of the doll in Yuuna Kasugai's room, and he thought that it might be possible for a girl who was keen to collect these things to break into a stranger's house if she happened to see this doll. "Didn't you tell your sister about the situation?" Kaga asked Maehara. "Yes, it's hard for me to explain all this to her...although I always have to tell her." "Your sister hasn't been here since Friday? And who looked after your mother?" "My wife and I are in charge for the time being, but there is nothing special to take care of. She can still go to the toilet by herself."

"What about the three meals?" "We sent her here." "Does your mother dine alone?" "Yes, but she's just eating a sandwich." "Sandwich?" Songgong couldn't help asking. "She gave it to me when I sent my sister home at the door, and she said that the old lady seems to be very interested in sandwiches recently." Matsumiya looked into the trash can in the corner of the room, and found empty sandwich bags and empty square containers for milk. Kaga crossed his arms and looked at Masae's back for a while, then finally turned to Matsumiya. "Shall we go look in the yard?" "courtyard?" "Mr. Maehara said he packed the bodies in cardboard boxes in the yard, so I wanted to have a look there." Matsumiya nodded, but he still didn't understand Kaga's intentions, what effect would looking at the courtyard play? "Please stay here." Kaga said so to the Maeharas and left the room, and Matsumiya hurriedly chased them out. Kaga came to the yard, knelt down and touched the lawn. "Do you have any questions about this lawn?" Song Gong asked. "That's just an excuse, I want to talk to you about something." Kaga said while still squatting there. "What are you talking about?" "Can you not contact the headquarters first?" "what?" "What do you think of what they said?" "Naturally, I was very surprised. I really didn't expect that the old lady would kill the person." Kaga grabbed a handful of grass in the yard and pulled it out.He stared at the grass in his hands for a while, then blew them away in one breath. "Are you prepared to trust them completely?" "You mean they're lying?" Kaga stood up, glanced at the entrance of Yuan's house in front of him, and lowered his voice. "I don't think they're telling the truth." "Really? But I can't see any flaws." "Naturally, because they must have spent all day yesterday inventing this flawless lie." "Is it too early to tell if it's a lie? Even if it's a lie, I think we should contact the headquarters now. If they hide something, it will probably be revealed in the subsequent investigation." Before Matsumiya finished speaking, Kaga shook his head, as if to show that he understood what Matsumiya meant. "The initiative is in your hands. If you must report to the headquarters now, I will not stop you. But I want to talk to Chief Ishigaki or Director Kobayashi. I have something to ask them." "what do you mean?" "Sorry, I don't have time to explain to you in detail now." Matsumiya felt anxious for a while, he felt that he was being treated like a newcomer.Kaga seemed to have noticed this, and added another sentence. "If you can confront them head-on, you will find out the truth." After hearing this sentence, it was difficult for Songgong to refute, and he took out his mobile phone suspiciously. It was Kobayashi who answered the call. Matsunomiya reported to him the content of Akio Maehara's statement and conveyed Kaga's request. Kobayashi asked him to transfer the phone to Kaga. Kaga answered the phone, walked a few steps away from Matsumiya, and started talking in a low voice.After a while, Kaga came back and handed the phone to Matsunomiya and said, "He asked you to listen to the phone." Matsumiya picked up the phone. "I understand the situation." Kobayashi said. "Then what do we do next?" "I'll give you some time. Kaga-kun seems to have his own ideas, so just do what he says." "Don't you need to bring Maehara and the others to the office?" "What I mean is that you don't need to rush to do this. I will explain the situation to the section chief." "Understood." Song Gong said and was about to hang up the phone when Xiao Lin stopped him again. "You have to watch what Kaga-kun does, and soon you will see a great show." Songgong thought about the deep meaning in Xiaolin's words, and stopped making a sound. "Come on." The other party hung up the phone after finishing. Songgong asked Kahe, "What's going on?" "You will understand sooner or later, but I can tell you one thing first. When you are a criminal policeman, you must not only unlock the truth, but also pay attention to the timing and method of unlocking the truth." Matsumiya couldn't understand, and couldn't help frowning, while Kaga stared intently into his eyes. "There is an unknown truth hidden in this family. It should not be forcibly revealed in the interrogation room of the police station, but must be explained by themselves, and the place is here." Akio had no idea what the criminal police were saying in the yard. He couldn't figure out what else to investigate there.He re-examined what he had said, looking for descriptions that would make the police suspicious, but he found no contradictions.Almost everything he said was true, except that the murderer was actually not Masae, but Naomi. "What do you think they are thinking?" Yaeko seemed to be thinking the same question, asking him uneasily. "I don't know." Akio replied briefly, and looked at his mother again. With his back to him, Zheng Hui sat there motionless, like a rock. That's good, that's the only way to do it——Akio comforted himself in his heart again.