Chapter 7 Section VII

A month passed with no progress.The members of the special case team who stayed overnight to handle the case gradually began to go home, and Sasagaki also soaked in his long-lost bathtub.He and his wife live in an apartment in front of Kintetsu Yao Station. His wife, Katsuko, is three years older than him, and they have no children. The next morning when she was sleeping in her bed, Sasagaki was woken up by a sound. Katsuko was busy changing clothes, and the hands of the clock were just past seven o'clock. "It's so early, what are you busy with? Where are you going?" Sasagaki asked under the covers.

"Ah! Sorry to wake you up. I'm going to the supermarket to buy something." "Shopping? So early?" "If you don't queue up so early, you may be too late." "Too late? What do you want to buy?" "Do you still need to ask? Of course it's toilet paper." "Toilet paper?" "I also went yesterday. It is stipulated that each person can only buy one piece. In fact, I really want you to go with me." "Why buy so much toilet paper?" "I don't have time to explain to you now, I'm going out first." Kezi in a cardigan picked up his wallet and hurried out.

Sasagaki was confused.Recently, my mind is full of handling cases and investigations, and I hardly care about what happens in the world.He had heard about the tight oil supply, but he didn't understand why he had to buy toilet paper and had to queue early in the morning.Wait for Kezi to come back and ask her carefully, he thought to himself, closing his eyes again. After a while, the phone rang.He turned over under the covers and reached for the black phone beside the pillow.My head hurts and I can't keep my eyes open. "Hello, the Sasagaki family." After more than ten seconds, he bounced up from the bed, and the drowsiness disappeared immediately.

That call was to inform him of Terasaki Tadao's death. Terasaki died on the Osaka Moriguchi Line of the Hanshin Expressway.The turning angle is not enough, and it hits the parapet, which is a typical result of lack of energy during driving. He had a load of soap and detergent in his pickup truck at the time.It was only later that Sasagaki found out that after toilet paper, people began to panic buy and stockpile such products, because customers wanted to buy more goods, and Terasaki kept looking for them everywhere without sleep. Sasagaki and others went to Terasaki's residence to search, trying to find relevant evidence of killing Kirihara Yosuke, but it cannot be denied that it was a futile operation.Even if something is found, the murderer is no longer alive.

Not long after, a policeman found important physical evidence in the compartment of the minivan—a Dunhill lighter, which was rectangular with sharp edges and corners.All members of the task force remember that the same thing disappeared from Yosuke Kirihara.However, no fingerprints of Yosuke Kirihara were found on the lighter.To be precise, no one's fingerprints on it - it seems to have been wiped with a cloth or something like that. The police asked Yayoko Kirihara to look at the lighter, but she shook her head in bewilderment, saying that although it looked alike, she couldn't be sure it was the same.

The police were so anxious that they called Lai Xibendai to interrogate her again, and tried their best to force her to confess.The presiding officer even did not hesitate to say something, implying that the lighter was indeed owned by Kirihara. "No matter how you think about it, it's really strange that Terasaki has such a thing. Either you stole it from the victim and gave it to Terasaki, or Terasaki stole it himself. There are only two possibilities. Which one is it? Tell me!" the presiding judge asked Nishimoto Watching the lighter on behalf of her, forcing her to confess.

But Xibundai has repeatedly denied it, and his attitude has not wavered in the slightest.The news of Terasaki's death should have hit her hard, but she couldn't feel any hesitation from her attitude. There must be a mistake somewhere, and we are on a completely wrong path—so Sasagaki, who was watching the interrogation, thought.