Chapter 13 Chapter 2 The Veiled Woman

When it comes to the manager of Yebisuya Department Store, most people think that it is a red-faced, chubby finger, wearing a big gold ring, a perfect combination of arrogance and sleekness, a gray-haired, just-aged old man, But this is very wrong. Kusaya Rokusuke was only thirty-five years old.Tall, heavy-set, broad-shouldered, and crisp in his demeanor, he looked more like a boxing-club manager than a department-store manager.His hair was strangely black, and of the thick-haired type, the stubble of which remained blue after he had usually shaved.With a dark complexion and thick eyebrows, he looks intimidating at first glance and seems difficult to approach.However, he was surprisingly popular among the department store employees.Especially among the young female employees, everyone said that he looked like a star in an American movie, and many girls took it as an honor to be approached by this young manager.

All of this probably stems from the frank character of Suiya Rokusuke.No matter who he is to, he will speak with the same attitude and tone.Whether it's dealing with sad-faced senior managers and bosses, dealing with difficult customers, or dealing with new young salespeople, his attitude has not changed in the slightest.He is always funny, with piercing eyes, quick words, and some refreshing epigrams from time to time, which is why he is loved by employees. But tonight, even this always open-minded Saoya Liusuke showed an ugly face, and he couldn't jump out of those proud epigrams, and the rare distress of this man was revealed between the wrinkles on his forehead.

"There are so many people around, but the murderer who committed the crime under his nose escaped. It's a pity." Putting a notebook in his pocket, and looking up at Liusuke through the desk, was a police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department. The clock in the manager's room was pointing to eight o'clock in the evening.The huge department store was shrouded in an empty silence, and there were bursts of hurried footsteps inside from time to time, probably the police were collecting evidence. The police who came after that severely interrogated the employees of the mall one by one.In particular, Akiko Isono and Junko Fushimi, who are most closely related to the case, and Zhujiang Shibazaki from the women's clothing department, were forced to tell the same content to the police many times.Now the interrogation is finally over and everyone has just been allowed to go home.

"That's true." Exhausted, he turned the swivel chair creakingly, and said, "After all, it happened suddenly, and everyone didn't realize it. No one could have expected it to happen so terrible. It happened... The timing was also very unfortunate... It happened to be a movie in the performing arts hall on the seventh floor. When the movie just ended, all the guests rushed out, and the stairs and elevators were all packed... In other words, the murderer was Taking advantage of the chaos to escape." "I can only think so, but the strange thing is that we investigated the entrance and exit on the first floor, but no one found a woman wearing a veil who went out at that time."

"But... it is impossible for the murderer to wear that eye-catching veil all the time. She must have taken it off halfway and put it away secretly." Saoya Liusuke clapped his hands, shaking his head and said, "Even if she took off the veil, No one could recognize her...because neither Fushimi Junko nor Shibasaki Tamae had ever seen her face." "Yes, you can think so. But..." At this point, the police officer Waiting Li suddenly leaned over and asked, "Who is that female pickpocket? Do you know that woman?" Suoya Liusuke sullenly remained silent. "Mr. Suoya, things have become like this. If you don't tell us all the situation, we will have a hard time. I know that it is about the reputation of the mall, and you also have all kinds of unspeakable difficulties. You also have to keep your customers’ morals a secret. But since it’s all about the murder case, if you don’t tell us the truth, it will be very difficult.” Waiting for the force police officer shouted excitedly, “Asshole, Tell Wu, who is that woman?"

Suoya Liusuke remained silent.Waiting for the police officer to look suspiciously at the other party's gloomy face, and said: "I can imagine the general situation. According to the statements of Shibazaki Zhujiang and other shop assistants, the general situation is probably like this. In your mall , there is a woman nicknamed 'Hei Lanji' who often appears. She wears a thick black veil, and no one has seen her face, and no one knows who she is. However, her elegant manners and luxurious Her clothes make people think that she is a lady from a rich family, and she is still very young, so the shop assistants nicknamed her 'Hei Lanji'. The woman always left after pickingpocketing the goods in the shop. Go, but the strange thing is, I heard that you have a rule here, saying that the thief cannot be caught, but the things she pickpockets should be handed over to the directors of each building in the form of bills, and then the directors will summarize them and hand them over to the manager , that is, it will all be handed over to you... It is said that there is such a rule. Although no one knows what happened after that, it must be you who collected the broken bills and asked for money from the female thief... ...Anyway, that's what the clerks said. In other words, the only one who knows the details of Kuranji is Mr. Suiya. Therefore, I would like to ask you Mr. Suiya, that Mrs. Thieves——no, maybe you are a young lady. , what is her background?"

Having said that, the police officer Waiting for Li waited for the other party's answer, but Suiya Liusuke remained silent.The police officer stared at the other party with suspicious eyes, and said, "There is one thing that may not exist in the world. Although he was born into a good family, he suffers from a kind of kleptomania, and he will pickpocket without knowing it. The shopping mall is also well aware, even if they see it, they pretend to be deaf and dumb, and ask for payment after the fact... We often hear this kind of thing, so I don't want to make irresponsible remarks on this point. However, since everything is developing It's a homicide case, I'm sorry, I have to find out everything. If it's just pickpocketing, the two of you can negotiate it yourself, but since you've all killed people..."

"No. Mr. Police Officer, this is your misunderstanding." Suiya Liusuke suddenly interrupted the words of Police Officer Waiting Power. "No? Mr. Suoya, what's wrong..." "Yes, what you just said is true. But that woman is not the same person as the woman who came today." "How do you know?" Waiting Li asked suspiciously. Putting his hands on the desk, Suoya Liusuke leaned forward and stared at the face of the police officer, and said: "First of all, I admit that if it is that lady, even if she is caught, she will never commit a crime. Therefore, we don't have to Take that decisive action."

"That's true, this is also a way of thinking, but, Mr. Suogu..." Waiting for the police officer to get up from the desk and say, "Can we think about it this way? Even if you know the true face of the woman, you are the only one." One person. You tried your best to help her cover up, and you also greeted the shop assistants, not allowing them to peek behind the veil, so no one knows what the woman with the strange disease of kleptomania is. However, today But unfortunately, because the director on the third floor is new, her veil was almost lifted. If the woman is a famous person, once the black veil is lifted, her appearance will be exposed immediately, and The news that such-and-such a woman suffers from this shameful disease will be widely known at once. Women are afraid of this, so they are driven to a dead end..."

"No, no! That..." Zao Gu Liusuke yelled desperately, but he seemed to have suddenly realized his gaffe, "Ah, sorry, it's useless to yell like this with you who don't know anything. Then I Let me tell you, there is actually a strange story about this.” Zaoya Liusuke clumsily let the swivel chair creak for a while, and then said: "Actually, since a while ago, I was worried that something strange would happen. That's right, I knew that woman. After that disease, I have been bringing bills to her home to ask for money. But recently, some strange things often happened. The woman did not steal because of greed, that is to say, she only came back because of this disease. It’s just bringing things, so everything she takes away will be put in her unique secret safe. Every time I bring the bill and go to ask for the payment, her elders will secretly check her The secret safe, the payment will only be made after confirming that the items inside are consistent with the goods written on the bill. In this case, there has never been a mistake before, and the contents of the safe have always been completely consistent with the bill.

"But... But recently, there have been mistakes. That is to say, there are things on the bill but not in the safe. There are more and more cases like this." "Oh..." Waiting for the police officer also frowned slightly. Zaoya Liusuke immediately said: "I am also very embarrassed about this, for fear that people will mistakenly think that I have seized the weakness of the other party, and even asked for money for things that they have never taken. Fortunately, the other party trusts me very much. My worry is superfluous, but I am also very disturbed. When I went back to the mall to investigate, the salesperson said that the item was indeed taken away by a woman wearing a veil. In this way, each has its own Reasonable, I can't doubt either party. My salesperson can't lie, but the other party is not the kind of person who will renege. This kind of thing happened twice later, and I realized: Could it be someone Pretending to be a woman wearing a veil, deliberately committing theft?" "Please wait a moment. Regarding the inconsistency between the bill and the real thing, didn't the other party try and confirm with her directly?" "How is it possible? The elders have been pretending all the time, they don't know that she has this kind of problem, and they even hide from her the secret payment for the goods she took away." Speaking of this, Suiya Liusuke suddenly shut up. The police officer Waiting Li smiled slightly and said: "That is to say, she herself didn't know that your shopping mall deliberately pretended to be deaf and dumb to her theft? In this way, after she was caught, the possibility of jumping over the wall in a hurry is also the same." Yes. However, let’s end this matter first. By the way, regarding what you just said, the bizarre inconsistency, how did you deal with it after you found out?” "Disposal... There is no way to deal with it. After all, when a woman with a veil appears, we can't let her take off her veil every time. Once we let her take it off, but find that it is really her, it will be a mess." It’s too big. Therefore, I first told someone about my doubts, and asked him to pay more attention in the future.” "Who did you tell? . . . " "A man named Gongwu Jinji." "Is he an employee in the mall?" "Yes, until a few days ago, he was still my employee, working as the director of the third floor. But just about a week ago, because of a little misbehavior—of course it had nothing to do with this matter—so I fired him." The police officer Waiting Li looked suspiciously at the forehead of Suiya Liusuke, and soon stood up slowly from the chair, and said: "Mr. Suiya, this case is not trivial. Is there a real or a fake Hei Lanji...you just now Said, apart from you, the only one who knows this is the man surnamed Gongwu. But you also said that Gongwu was fired a week ago. Mr. Suoya, what does this mean? It can't be to protect Heilan Ji, and intentionally fabricated some non-existent things to deliberately deceive us?" Zaoya Liusuke was angrily, and just about to say something, the phone rang eagerly, and Liusuke hurriedly picked up the phone.After a few words, he immediately handed the letter to the police officer Waituli. "Looking for me?" Waiting for the police officer to take the phone, he answered a few words, and suddenly his body trembled as if he had been ejected.Liusuke was startled and stared at him closely. "Okay, I'll go over right away." Police officer Waitoli put down his words with a "bang", turned towards Suiya Liusuke, and stared blankly at his face, but Officer Waitoli quickly used a broken branch He said in a blunt tone, "Bastard, Mr. Suoya, another murder has occurred in this building." "In the coffee shop on the seventh floor, a man was found killed just now. As for the man's origin, according to the business card in his arms, his name is..." "Mr. Police Officer, what the hell is going on, he..." "His name is Gong Wu Jin Er. Mr. Suo Gu, what's going on?"