Chapter 5 Section five

There is a small park in front of the main entrance of Marukinya Supermarket. There is only a swing, a slide, and a sandpit in the small space. It is convenient for the young children to play while the mother is shopping.The park is also a place for housewives to gossip, exchange information, and sometimes leave their children in the hands of people they know while they go shopping.Many housewives who shop at Marukaneya covet this benefit. On the day of Yosuke Kirihara's murder, at around 6:30 p.m., Yuue Kinoshita, who lived nearby, met Nishi Bunyo in a supermarket.Wen Dai seems to have bought something and is about to check out.Yuki Kinoshita had just entered the supermarket, and the basket was still empty.They exchanged a few words and said goodbye.

It was past seven o'clock when Yume Kinoshita left the supermarket after shopping.She was about to go home on her bicycle parked by the park, but when she got on the bicycle, she saw Wen Dai sitting on the swing.Wen Dai seemed to be thinking about something, and was swinging on the swing blankly. When the police asked her to confirm whether the person she saw was really Nishibundai, Yue Kinoshita assured her that she was absolutely right. As if to prove this testimony again, the police found another person who saw Wen Dai sitting on the swing—the owner of a grilled octopus ball stand in front of the supermarket.Nearly eight o'clock, when the supermarket was about to close, he was surprised to see a woman swinging nearby.The appearance of the housewife in his memory should be Wen Dai.

At the same time, the police also obtained new information on the whereabouts of Kirihara Yosuke.The owner of the pharmacy saw Kirihara walking alone on the road at around 6 o'clock on Friday evening.The pharmacy owner said that he wanted to stop Tong Yuan, but seeing that Tong Yuan was in a hurry, he gave up.The location where he saw Kirihara was exactly between Yoshida's apartment where Nishibundai lived and the morgue site. Kirihara's presumed time of death was between five and eight o'clock. It would not be impossible for Wen Dai to rush to the scene immediately after swinging on the swing.Investigators, however, largely dismissed that possibility as extremely low.Originally, it was a bit far-fetched to extend the presumed time of death to eight o'clock.The time of death judged by undigested food is inherently very accurate, sometimes even accurate to a few minutes.In fact, the time of death is most likely between six and seven o'clock.

In addition, there is another basis to infer that the murder time will not exceed 7:30 at the latest, and that is the situation at the scene.The room where the corpse was buried had no lighting equipment, and it was okay during the day, but at night, it was pitch black inside.The lights of the opposite building will only bring weak light into the room. The brightness is about the level at which the eyes can recognize the other person's appearance after adaptation, and the lights of the building are turned off at 7:30.If Wen Dai had prepared a flashlight in advance, it was possible to commit murder.Just considering Kirihara's psychology, in that case, it's hard to imagine him being unsuspecting.

Although Wen Dai acted suspiciously, the police had to admit that the possibility of her doing so was extremely low. While Nishi Bundai's suspicions gradually eased, other investigators got new clues about Kirihara's pawnshop.According to the roster of customers who came to the door recently, it was found that on the evening of the day when Yosuke Tongyuan was killed, someone came to Tongyuan pawn shop. It was a woman who lived in Xun, a place a few kilometers south of the Dajiang River.This middle-aged woman who lives alone has frequented Kirihara's pawn shop since her husband died of illness the year before last.The reason why she chose a shop some distance from her home is said to be that she didn't want to be bumped into by acquaintances when entering and leaving the pawn shop.On the Friday of the murder, she came to Kirihara's pawn shop at around 5:30 p.m. with a pair of watches that she bought with her husband.

The woman said that although the pawnshop was open, the door was locked.She rang the bell, but no one answered.Reluctantly, she left the pawnshop, went to a nearby market to buy ingredients for dinner, and then went to Kirihara's pawnshop again on the way home.It was about half past six, but the door was still locked then.She didn't ring the bell again, and went home desperately.Three days later, the watch was cashed in at another pawn shop.She did not subscribe to the newspaper, and did not know about the murder of Yosuke Kirihara until she was interviewed by investigators. This information naturally led the task force to suspect Yayoko Kirihara and Isamu Matsuura, who had confessed that they were open until 7 pm that day.

So Sasagaki, Koga and two other detectives went to Kirihara's pawnshop again. Matsuura, who was looking at the store, opened his eyes wide: "What's the matter?" "Excuse me, is the lady boss there?" Sasagaki asked. "exist." "Could you please call her?" Matsuura showed a surprised expression, and opened the lattice door behind him a little: "The police are here." There was a sound from inside, and the lattice door opened wider, and Yayoko, who was wearing a white knitted jacket and jeans, came out.She frowned and looked at the detectives. "What's the matter?"

"Can I spare you a little time? I want to ask you something." Sasagaki said. "It can be... what can it be?" "I want you to go out with us." A detective said, "It won't take too long to go to the cafe over there." Yayoko's expression was slightly displeased, but she still answered "yes", then put on her sandals, and glanced timidly at Matsuura.Sasagaki saw all this in his eyes. The two policemen took Yayoi and left.As soon as they went out, Sasagaki approached the counter: "I also have something to ask Matsuura-san." "What's the matter?" Although Matsuura had a friendly smile on his face, he looked defensive.

"What happened on the day of the murder. After our investigation, we found that some things contradicted what you said." Sasagaki spoke slowly on purpose. "Contradictions?" Matsuura's smile seemed a little stiff. Sasagaki gave the testimony of a female customer who lived in Tatsumi, and Matsuura listened, the smile on his face completely disappeared. "What's going on here? Your store is open until seven o'clock, but someone said that the door was locked between 5:30 and 6:30. This is very strange, isn't it?" Sasagaki looked straight at Matsuura's eyes.

"Uh, at that time," Matsuura crossed his arms, grunted, and slapped his hands together, "That's right! It was then! I remembered. I went into the vault." "Vault?" "It's in the vault. I think I said before that we put all the valuables from the guests in there. When you look at it, it's like a strong warehouse with a lock. I want to confirm Some things, just go inside. Sometimes the call bell can't be heard in there." "Is there no one watching the store at a time like this?" "Usually the boss is there, but at that time I was the only one, so I locked the door."

"Where is the proprietress and her son?" "They're all in the living room." "In that case, they must have both heard the calling bell?" "Oh, this..." Matsuura opened his mouth halfway, and was silent for a few seconds before saying, "They were watching TV in the inner room, so they probably didn't hear it." Sasagaki looked at Matsuura's protruding cheekbones, turned around and told Koga, "Go and ring the bell." "Okay." Gu He walked outside the door.The beep sounded immediately above the head, and the sound could be described as slightly harsh. "It's very loud." Sasagaki said, "I think, no matter how focused you are watching TV, it's impossible not to hear it." Matsuura's expression changed, but he twisted his face into a wry smile. "The proprietress never does business. Even if there are customers, she seldom greets them, and Xiao Liang never visits the store. They may have heard the buzzing, but they ignore it." "Oh, ignore it." Neither the woman named Yayoko nor the boy named Ryoji really looked like they would help take care of the business in the store. "Mr. Police, are you suspicious of me? You seem to be saying that I killed the boss..." "It's all right," Sasagaki waved his hand, "Once there is a contradiction, no matter what trivial matter it is, we have to investigate it thoroughly. This is our basic requirement for handling cases. If you can understand this, we will be able to handle things more easily." "Really? But no matter how suspicious the police are, I don't care." Matsuura said sarcastically, showing his yellowed teeth. "It's not suspicious, but it's better to have clear evidence to prove it. Then, between six and seven o'clock that day, was there anything to prove that you were indeed in the store?" "From six o'clock to seven o'clock... the proprietress and Xiao Liang can be witnesses, isn't that okay?" "The so-called witnesses are preferably completely irrelevant." "This kind of statement is simply treating us as accomplices!" Matsuura stared angrily. "The detective must consider all possibilities." Sasagaki responded lightly. "It's ridiculous! Killing the boss won't do me any good. Although the boss spends money outside, he has no property at all." Sasagaki didn't answer, just smiled, thinking that it would be nice to let Matsuura leak a little more in a fit of anger, but Matsuura didn't say anything more. "Six to seven? Does it count if it's a phone call?" "Phone? With whom?" "People in the guild, discuss the meeting next month." "Mr. Matsuura called?" "Well, no, they called." "What time is it?" "The first one was at six o'clock, and I called again about thirty minutes later." "Hit twice?" "yes." Sasagaki organized the timeline in his head.If what Matsuura said was true, then he would have an alibi from around 6:00 to 6:30.Taking this as a premise, he considered the possibility of Matsuura's murder. Difficult, he came to this conclusion. Sasagaki asked the name and contact information of the caller from the guild, and Matsuura took out a business card holder to look for it.Just then, the door to the stairs opened.The boy's face was exposed through the slightly opened door. Spotting Sasagaki's sight, Ryoji immediately closed the door, and then there was the sound of quick steps upstairs. "Little brother Kirihara is here." "Huh? Oh, I just came back from school." "Can I go up?" Sasagaki pointed to the stairs. "Go to the second floor?" "Ok." "This... I don't think it should matter." Sasagaki instructed Koga: "After copying the contact information of the guild, please ask Mr. Matsuura to show you the vault." Then he began to take off his shoes.He opened the door and looked up at the stairs. It was dark and filled with the smell of plaster. The surface of the wooden stairs had been worn black and shiny by socks for many years.Sasagaki leaned on the wall and went upstairs cautiously. At the end of the stairs, the two rooms face each other across a narrow corridor, with a Japanese-style sliding door on one side and a lattice door on the other.There was also a door at the end of the corridor, but it was probably either a storage room or a bathroom. "Brother Ryoji, I'm a policeman, can I ask you a few questions?" Sasagaki asked while standing in the corridor. Waited for a while with no response.Sasagaki took a breath, and was about to ask again, when suddenly he heard a click from the sliding door. Sasagaki opened the sliding door.Liang Si sat at the desk, only his back could be seen. "May I excuse you?" Sasagaki walked into the room.It was a six-fold Japanese room, and the room should face southwest, with plenty of sunlight coming in from the windows. "I don't know anything." Liang Si said with his back to him. "It's okay, just say you don't know what you don't know, I just use it as a reference. Can I sit here?" Sasagaki pointed to the cushion on the tatami. Liangji glanced back and replied, "Please sit down." Sasagaki sat cross-legged and looked up at the boy sitting on the chair. "Your father... what a pity." Ryoji didn't respond, but still turned his back to Sasagaki. Sasagaki took a look inside and found that the room was pretty clean.As far as the primary school students' rooms are concerned, it even feels a little deserted.There are no posters of Momoe Yamaguchi or Junko Sakurada, or images of supercars adorning the room.There are no comics on the bookshelves, only encyclopedias, "The Structure of Cars", "The Structure of Televisions" and other popular science books for children. What caught Sasagaki's attention was the picture frame hanging on the wall, inside was white paper cut into the shape of a sailboat, and even the strings were delicately and meticulously displayed.Sasagaki remembered the paper-cutting performances he had seen at the garden party, but this work was much more delicate. "This is awesome! Did you make it?" Ryoji glanced at the frame and nodded slightly. "Oh!" Sasagaki exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, "Your hands are so skillful, you can put them on display for sale." "Excuse me, what question do you want to ask me?" Liangji seemed not in the mood to chat with a strange middle-aged man. "Speaking of which," Sasagaki adjusted his sitting posture, "were you at home that day?" "When?" "The day your father died." "Oh...yes, I'm home." "What are you doing from six to seven?" "Six to seven?" "Well, don't remember?" The boy tilted his head and replied, "I'm downstairs watching TV." "Are you alone?" "Together with mother." The boy's voice never showed a trace of fear. "Oh." Sasagaki nodded, "Excuse me, can you watch me talk?" Ryoji let out a breath, and slowly turned the chair around.Sasagaki thought, his eyes must be full of rebellion.However, there was nothing in the boy's eyes looking down at the policeman.His eyes can even be described as empty, like a scientist who is observing.Is he watching me?Sasagaki felt that way. "What TV show is it?" Sasagaki asked deliberately in a relaxed tone. Ryoji said the name of the show, which was a series aimed at boys.Sasagaki asked what was broadcast at that time, Ryoji was silent for a while before speaking.His instructions are very organized, concise and easy to understand.Even if you haven't watched the show, you can understand the general content. "What time did you see?" "About half past seven." "and then?" "Have dinner with mom." "That's it. Your father hasn't come back, you must be very worried." "Hmm..." Ryoji replied in a low voice, then sighed and looked at the window.Affected by him, Sasagaki also looked out the window, the sky at dusk was red. "Sorry to bother you, work hard." Sasagaki stood up and patted him on the shoulder. Sasagaki and Koga returned to the task force, compared with the police who questioned Yayoko, and found no major contradictions in the statements of Yayoko and Matsuura.As Matsuura said, Yayoko also claimed that when the female guests came, she was watching TV with Ryoji inside.She said that she might have heard the calling bell, but she had no impression that receiving guests was not her job, so she didn't take it to heart.She also said that she didn't know what Matsuura was doing while she was watching TV.In addition, the content of the TV program described by Yayoko is roughly the same as what Ryoji said. If there were only Yayoko and Matsuura, it would not be difficult to collate a confession in advance.But when Ryoji, the son of the deceased, was included, it was another matter.Maybe they were telling the truth—the atmosphere was getting stronger and stronger in the task force. This was quickly proven.The phone call that Matsuura said was confirmed, and it was indeed the call to Kirihara's pawn shop around 6:00 or 6:30 that day.The pawnbroker's guild officer who called confirmed that the person he was talking to was indeed Matsuura. The investigation returned to the original point again, focusing on the regular customers of Tongyuan pawnshop, and continued the basic investigation work.Time passed relentlessly.In terms of professional baseball, the Yomiuri Giants won the Central League for nine consecutive times.Ezaki Reinai won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the tunneling effect of semiconductors.At the same time, affected by the war in the Middle East, the price of crude oil in Japan has gradually risen... The whole Japan is shrouded in a situation where the storm is about to come. When the special case team began to feel restless, they got a new clue, which was found by the criminal police who investigated the Xiben Dynasty.