Chapter 15 first quarter

Sunday, June 17. In the dark sky, there was a misty light rain, but it was a windless morning. Keiko Sugihara met Yosuke Tachibana at the entrance of the community at 8 o'clock in the morning. The neighborhood on Sunday morning was obviously different from usual. There were almost no pedestrians, and the surrounding area seemed to be surrounded by tranquility. Yosuke Tachibana, who was five minutes late, drove a pink "Blue Bird" car and stopped beside Keiko Sugihara.The car is quite old, but it's been wiped clean.This was borrowed by Yosuke Tachibana from Nogami, a friend of the sales department.

From Fukuoka city to the south, drive through Kumamoto Prefecture to Kagoshima, and pass National Highway No. 3, the road is very smooth.After the spring, it entered the rainy season, and there was no transition at all. As soon as you leave the town, you can see patches of green fields, and the mountains in the distance are also covered with light green costumes unique to summer.On the mountain peaks farther away, there are still white clouds and mist. Due to the high humidity in the mountains, the scenery there also looks wet. Of course, it is not so dazzling to the driver's sight. Yosuke Tachibana, who was driving a car, was silent.He held the steering wheel steadily at a speed that would not cause danger.

Sugihara Keiko couldn't help but think of the scene when she was sitting in Zhenbi Xiumin's car about two months ago.At that time, she suddenly thought of her dead brother.That was the appearance of Xizi when she was 20 years old, her elder brother who was 7 years older, when he died in the mountains.Probably because she didn't get along with her brother for a long time after she became sensible, so in Sugihara Keiko's heart, she often idolizes him, and always abstractly thinks that he still lives in a certain corner of the world.Mabi that night really made Keiko Sugihara feel his brother's resurrection.

However, today, Yosuke Tachibana, who was sitting next to Keiko Sugihara, had a different feeling from his elder brother and Hidetoshi Mabi.Whenever he approached her, it was real. Before 11 o'clock, they entered the city of Kumamoto City.While admiring the ancient stone walls left over from Kumamoto Castle, they walked on a road that was obviously much wider than Fukuoka, and soon they drove into a small parking lot on a busy street. "Take a break!..." Tachibana Yosuke glanced at Sugihara Keiko, opened the car door before she could answer, and walked out casually.When there were only the two of them, it seemed that Yosuke Tachibana seemed somewhat stubborn.

The sky is still dark, but there is no fog or rain, but the outside of the car is extremely hot. "The summer in Kumamoto Prefecture is very hot, because it is like a basin. The climate is similar to that of Kyoto." Yosuke Tachibana said as he walked. Tachibana Yosuke was originally born in Fukuoka, but from middle school to high school, he was entrusted to his father who worked in the legal department and spent time in Kyoto.This is the root cause of his obvious Kansai accent. Walking into a small restaurant, Yosuke Tachibana looked at the camera equipment he brought, checked the map, and called Fukuoka to ask about work.Then, he stretched himself.

After driving for three hours in a row, Tachibana Yosuke couldn't tell how tired he was.The so-called rest seems to be for Keiko Sugihara. After they walked out of the tavern together, they got into the car again.The car passed the main street covered with rows of old brick and tile buildings, and entered National Highway No. 57 from Kumamoto to Aso.The two-way lane is narrow, but a well-paved road.The two monorails of the Fengfei Main Line lie side by side on both sides of the road.Going outside, there are rows of tall fir forests. After a while, the outer mountain of Aso Volcano, like a huge green wall, surrounded from both sides of the field of vision.The nearest, shorter peaks are covered with many shades of green.The earthy color that has been excavated everywhere looks very eye-catching against the green background.

After passing through Otsu Town, where the Horikoshi couple lived, we arrived at Tateno.In Liye, the road is divided into two forks, just wrapping Aso Wuyue (Nailun Mountain) from a distance, forming a round arc that runs through the north and south. No matter which road here, you walk in the wide old crater between Wuyue and Wailun Mountain.The same is true for the railway tracks. Starting from the Fengfei Main Line that goes all the way to Oita, the tracks of the Takamori Line heading south are also divided into two lines. In front of the signboard with "Tateno", Yosuke Tachibana stopped the car.If you drive to the left, you can pass through Chishui and Neimu Hot Springs to reach the main street of Aso known as the "Panshan Highway"; if you turn right, you can cross the valley, pass through Changyang, and Baikaishui Village to reach Takamori Town.After looking at the map, Sugihara Keko was very familiar with the terrain in this area.

Tachibana Yosuke glanced at Sugihara Keiko, then turned to the right, and Keiko also bowed. Their car passed an iron bridge, which seemed to have just been completed, and the paint was bright vermilion.Then, they drove up the mountain road.Although the mountain road is winding and serpentine, the road surface is relatively flat. Takadake and Nakadake are the main peaks of Mount Aso.Against the background of white clouds, the green mountain peaks are very obvious.Among the five mountains, Gaoyue is the highest peak at 1592 meters above sea level.The mountain line on the right is almost straight and connected with the outer ring mountain, so it gives people a feeling of "mountain wall".At the foot of the mountain is the grassland of Yimapingchuan.

The name "Nanxiang Valley" is more elegant and picturesque than Sugihara Keiko imagined. "Which area is the scene of the accident?" Keiko Sugihara looked around curiously. "Well... Anyway, let's go to the Takamori Police Station and ask." Tachibana Yosuke drove the car and kept going. The car drove into a rural area, and they saw a traffic sign on the side of the road marked "Four kilometers from Takamori Town". Gao Sen is a town in Tianxia with few pedestrians.Maybe it's because it's noon now, and from time to time, they would run into some elementary school students passing by.And as soon as they passed, the road seemed quiet.

As soon as we entered Takamori Town, we immediately saw the Takamori Police Station.It was a natural wooden structure, a two-story building like the school building.In front of it is the old black building of Takamori Station, surrounded by cherry blossom trees and boxwood trees.This is the end point of the Takamori Line. On the notice board at the entrance of the police station, the words "Yesterday's traffic accident" were written.For the number of cases above, the dead and the injured, "0" is filled in each column.Then, the traffic accident four years ago seems to be a big deal here.

Probably Tachibana Yosuke had already called before he came. After he notified his name to the policeman on duty at the door, the man immediately notified the director, and then sent two people to the director's office. The director of the Gao Sen Police Department, who looks to be in his forties, is a burly man with a very straightforward appearance. After Tachibana Yosuke and the others sat down on the sofa, they handed over their business cards to the director, and then cut to the chase, asking about the hit-and-run case four years ago. "How should I say—?" The police chief looked at the business card with "Kyushu TV Station" written on it, and then at Yosuke's face with thick eyebrows.He looked full of doubts. Tachibana Yosuke then explained: "No, this matter has nothing to do with the TV station, and we are not a group dedicated to exposing such incidents. It is due to personal reasons. The victim of that incident, Ms. Horikoshi Sanae, entrusted us to come here Investigating.—You should know that Ms. Sanae died recently." "What's going on?...Death!..." The chief of police suddenly widened his eyes. "Actually, ten of our friends got together and started a publication. Ms. Horikoshi Sanae was one of them, and often published some poems and novels on it. This time Ms. Sanae passed away unfortunately, and we plan to issue a special issue to mourn her. " "What ailed her and died?" asked the Superintendent of Police. "I didn't get sick, but died after falling into the sea from the cliff." Keiko Sugihara interjected and corrected, "It is generally judged that he fell into the water by slipping..." "So that's the case!..." The chief of police fell into deep thought. "——Then, we plan to publish her experience in the special issue." Yosuke Tachibana said earnestly, "However, no one here is very clear about her car accident four years ago..." "Ah, that's right!..." The Chief of Police nodded with a sigh. "For Ms. Sanae, this incident may not be a big deal, but we believe that it is a major turning point in her life. Of course, it will also affect her works. Therefore, we When we publish a special issue, if we can record that incident..." "Oh, so that's the case!..." The chief of police nodded, as if agreeing. Then the Chief of Police slowly produced a cigarette, lit it, and cast his eyes out the window on the road.From the window, you can see Genziyue, the easternmost of the five mountains, but there, at the rocks near the top of Genziyue, you can see only patches of white clouds. "Of course I still remember that incident." The police chief narrowed his eyes as if remembering while breathing out the smoke.Although his accent was not standard, it was rhythmic and very pleasant to the ear. "That happened not long after I took office. Since I had been working in the traffic department before I became the police chief, I was the one who investigated this incident. However, the investigation was too laborious..." Yosuke Tachibana had already learned about the incident and the investigation process he described later in detail on the phone, and he did not add any new content. "But, I don't remember what poems or novels that lady wrote." The police chief thought about it carefully, and seemed to have lost his memory of Sanae Horikoshi. "However, she often mentions this incident." Yosuke Tachibana entered the substantive stage, and he asked, "There is no witness to that incident?" "Isn't it!..." said the chief of police with emotion. "However, the victim said that she had the biggest clue." "Evidence was also found at the scene." "From what she said, she saw the driver who caused the accident, a young woman." "Yes." The Chief of Police nodded. This is on point. "So, isn't this the most important clue?" Tachibana Yosuke asked again. "If the victim is in a very sober state, it can be used as strong evidence. But..." The Chief of Police said as he stubbed out his cigarette, and leaned forward. "If you believe the victim's accusation casually, it is not a sure thing. Because she was seriously injured at the time and was in shock. Later, she was rescued from the brink of death. In the hospital, her consciousness I have never been clear." The police chief shook his head seriously, and emphasized with a serious face, "It was under such circumstances that Horikoshi Sanae said that the car involved in the accident was a large black car, as if the other party also stepped on the brakes, etc. etc. But, after a while, she said it was a bright red car, driven by a young woman. After being hit head-on by that car, she flew into the air and couldn't remember anything after that So, the car model, color, and the circumstances of the collision that she mentioned twice are different, we can only think that she made a slip of the tongue because of psychological trauma, and, later we were at the scene and found The car involved in the accident was a black 'Crown' sedan, so of course Horikoshi Sanae's later testimony cannot be trusted." At this time, a young criminal policeman brought tea, so the police chief resumed his previous expression and persuaded the two of them to drink tea.The fragrance of tea wafts through the room. "Where is the scene of the accident?" Seeing Yosuke Tachibana thinking, Keiko Sugihara asked casually. So the Chief of Police turned his head and looked at the map hanging on the wall behind him.With the tip of a pencil, he drew a small circle on the map.Xizi saw that place, it was on the route from Liye to Gaosen, and it was the narrowest part of the road. "In May of last year, an iron bridge was built here, and the road was re-widened. However, in the past, the only way to reach Liye was to take the old road next to it." Hearing what the police chief said, Keiko Sugihara immediately remembered the vermilion iron bridge not far from the branch of National Highway No. 57 in Tachino. The distance between them has been shortened, and now the old road indicated by the chief of police with a pencil is a little closer to Kumamoto on the west side than the iron bridge, and it is also farther away from National Highway No. 57. Also more curved. In front of the road, the words "Tochigi Onsen" are marked, and there it merges with the new road extending from the iron bridge.Since the iron bridge was erected just last year, at the time of the accident in January 197X, cars could only use the road passing through "Tochigi Onsen". "It's said to be an old road, but it was expanded and rebuilt last year. It's just that there are a few sharp turns on the north side of the mountain. The unpaved cobbled roads are the most prone to accidents for inexperienced drivers, so the government has also built guardrails there." Having said that, the Chief of Police looked at the wall clock next to the map and asked, "Do you want to go to the scene to have a look?" "Okay, then..." Yosuke Tachibana quickly stood up and nodded. "Actually, I also happen to have something to go to Chishui, so let's drop by along the way." The police chief's patrol car cleared the way ahead, followed by Tachibana Yosuke and Sugihara Keiko's cars. Unlike when they came, they headed towards the sign for the entrance of "Tochigi Onsen", and turned downhill on the left from there. Unlike the undulating road you came by, the old road is almost always a very steep downhill.On the right side of the road there are rough rocks, and there are often prominent rocks "hanging" above the head; on the left side is a canyon that goes straight up and down, and there is a white river at the bottom of the valley.Below the iron bridge we passed just now is a polluted "black" river. The two rivers join together in Tateno and are called "Shirakawa" and flow into Shimabara Bay, which is heading west.Be it the river, the roads, or the railways, they all bypassed Aso Volcano and burned it as if surrounded by fire. After bypassing the basin with the old crater, the road turned sharply again, and the driver had to keep turning the steering wheel left and right to go downhill safely. "Tochigi Onsen" is an inn with several houses in front of the end of the downhill.Since there is no open space for farming, there are no houses here, and no cars approaching in front of them, so one can imagine how desolate this place must be in the middle of the night when the accident happened. The speed of the patrol car ahead gradually slowed down.When it came to a stop, it happened to be on a right-hand bend. The police chief who got out of the car first, waited for Yosuke Tachibana and Keiko Sugihara to come over, pointed to the guardrail and said: "That lady fell down here, and the motorcycle fell from this place. The car coming from the direction of Gao Sen collided head-on and fell down. According to our judgment, the speed of the motorcycle at that time was 30-40 kilometers per hour, while the speed of the car was 60 kilometers per hour. The motorcycle was The right side of the car that caused the accident collided, and after being thrown into the air, it fell hard downhill again." Of course, there is no trace of anything here now. On the slopes below, bushes and weeds grew.White wildflowers sway in the wind.A little further ahead; a monorail of the Takamori Line can be seen crossing over the canyon in the distance.In front of the railroad track, it seems that the sound of the waterfall can also be heard.The north-facing mountain on the opposite side is also hidden in a rare primitive jungle, covered in dark green under the white clouds. Keiko Sugihara couldn't help closing her eyes.