Home Categories detective reasoning Broken Cliff

Chapter 31 Chapter One

Broken Cliff 松本清张 5611Words 2018-03-15
In terms of administrative area, it is under the jurisdiction of the neighboring counties of Tokyo. In recent years, urban residential areas around Tokyo have been rapidly densified.Even so, there is still "countryside".Farmers who waited for the price of land to rise deliberately planted vegetables. Between the residential areas, there are "pastorals" scattered everywhere.Next to the grassland and black soil, white paved roads extend in all directions for vehicles to come and go. That house was along a national highway with street names in the Edo period. Twenty years ago, it was mostly mixed trees and fields, and the new houses were just a few scattered buildings on the edge.Now apartment houses, build-to-sell homes, have spread like staph, almost obscuring woods and fields.

Even so, this field is about one hectare. It used to be about three hectares, but it has gradually shrunk in the past five or six years.The missing two hectares have been turned into residential areas. There are several provincial roads stretching northward from the national highway to the private railway station.There is a lively shopping street in front of the station, and there are also buses going to the city.One of the market roads is in the middle, a private road is opened, and there are several cross roads, which are specially used for a batch of new pre-sale houses.There are real houses with beautiful appearance for people to visit.

Not long after the completion of these houses, the couples who came here to visit all stood at the end of the crossroads and looked at the miscellaneous forests and fields in front of them, and sighed the only remaining Musashino style. Some wives pointed to the front and said: Ah, there are farmhouses here, how rare!In front of their fingertips, under the shade of the woods, there is a tea-brown tinplate roof in the shape of a hut, and only the shadows surrounded by high wooden fences can be seen under the roof. Suppose you walk a little way back from the private road, and then turn into a small fork.This small fork road may have been a field road in the past, but now it has been simply paved. Walking from here, you must be able to pass in front of the farmhouse seen from a distance.

Take a look inside the door, and there are pine trees planted in the front yard, which was probably used to dry rice in the past.This thick-column one-story house is centered on the entrance and spreads out to the left and right, and there are two other warehouses beside it.It seems to have been built seven or eight years ago.However, after looking at those pre-sale houses with novel and fashionable styles and bright colors, this bungalow, including the surrounding fields and trees, feels like a simple farmhouse anyway.The house number is: "Numai Heiyoshi". Although not visible from a distance, there was another small converted farmhouse under the nearby woods.

When coming out of the small road to the national highway, people from other places must turn their heads and say to each other again: I didn't expect this kind of farmhouse to exist here. However, if they know that the land of the pre-sale houses was previously owned by the owner of the farmhouse with a pine tree in the front yard, and that the paid parking lot nearby is also operated by the owner of the farmhouse, they will probably look back at the farmhouse again. A gloomy farmhouse?Then he said: The land must be sold to the real estate owner at a very high price, and the cigarette in his mouth was thrown on the side of the road and stamped out with his shoes.

The murder happened here. At 6:40 am on March 2, the department under its jurisdiction received the news from the police station that robbers broke into Numai Heiyoshi's house, killed Numai's wife, and Numai Heiyoshi himself was injured. It was around 7:50 when the six criminal police officers from the department under their jurisdiction arrived at the farmhouse where the murder occurred.At that time, the police from the police station were already there to preserve the scene.It was a cloudy day and it wasn't raining, but it had rained three days ago. "The injured male owner Numai Heiyoshi has already gone to the hospital in the car of Dr. Murase." The police from the police station said to the head of the search section of this department, Sugatsu Sentaro, at the door.

Sending the sick to the hospital meant the dead remained at home. "How bad is the injury?" "The right hand and right chest were injured, but not serious, just a little bit more blood flow." "Who made the report?" "Neighbor Yano Shoichi, he is the operator of the toll parking lot operated by the victim. Also, the victim's brother is also here." "Brother over there?" "Mrs. Numai's elder brother. I have asked him to stay at Yano's house to wait." "Okay, let's listen to everyone's confession later."

Section Chief Sugiura, whose hair was already thinning, entered inside under the leadership of police officers from the police station, because the body was at the back door. The body of the victim, Mrs. Numai, was lying on her back in the eight-mat room near the back.There is an alcove on the west side, the pillows are facing this side, and two quilts are spread side by side.The corpse was on the quilt near the paper door in the south, the head fell under the pillow, and the body was slanted to the southwest.Yukata, sheets, quilts, and tatami mats were all stained with blood. The woman's arms are outstretched from side to side, her hands clenched into fists.Section Chief Sugiura gently lifted the quilt that covered his chest, and the hem of the yukata was turned up and entangled crumpledly, but his thighs were not exposed.The blood was stained from the neck to the chest, and because the blood flowed to the side, the yukata from the waist down was stained with patterns.

Next to it—the bed sheet on the north side of the paper door was also stained with blood, and the cover had been removed, but the amount of blood was not much.This is the bunk of my husband who was injured and taken to the hospital. In the alcove with landscape paintings, there is a fake celadon incense burner, and there is no trace of burning incense.Other than that there are no other decorations. On different ledges next to the alcove, Hakata dolls in glass frames and Kintaro riding a bear are displayed. The supervisors who came together took pictures of the interior from various angles. Before the filming was completed, the wooden door was still closed, so the interior was dark.The light did not come on.

The paper door between it and the wooden door is also closed.Between the paper door and the wooden set door is a corridor about half a meter wide. The rain corridor outside the wooden door is facing the courtyard to the south. There is a fence on the other side of the courtyard, and an alley outside the fence. "Hey, Soda, let's draw a sketch now!" Section Chief Sugiura said to the young detective standing in the corner. The detectives who searched the house had nothing to do until the photography and fingerprinting were completed. "Yes." Soda Sosuke took out the pamphlet.A detailed schematic diagram will be produced separately during the formal on-site inspection to be held in the afternoon.But the criminal police must first draw a sketch on the notebook.

Tian Tian was assigned to the criminal police department of this department for about half a year. He came from the South Police Station and was still in the stage of probation for criminal investigation.The section chief told him to draw sketches, which was training him. At this time, it was about half past eight. In order to preserve the scene, the wooden door was still closed, so the room was dark.Only the moment of flash when taking pictures is like daylight. In this flash of light, the white face of the murdered woman emerged, with her mouth open and her eyes tightly closed. Do people who are killed also close their eyes?Tomada thought.This is the first time he has been to the scene of a murder. However, in the pictures of the scene, the eyes of the murdered people are all wide open. After arriving in the criminal police class, he discovered that when people were killed in movies and TV, it was unnatural for actors to close their eyes.Especially costume dramas, most of them are deceptive.Every time he sees this kind of scene, where the actor is killed and his eyes are closed, he criticizes in his heart that the performance is unreal.Therefore, now he felt a little strange seeing the female corpse with her eyes closed.He thought: Is there such a thing?In deep sleep, do you die if you don't open your eyes once?However, his hands were clenched into fists, and there was a painful expression on his face, and his mouth was wide open, didn't he look like he was about to scream? The woman's short hair was permed, but it was almost unruly.The line of the bridge of the nose is beautiful.Slightly swollen eyelids drooped, eyelashes shaped like half moons.She looks about thirty years old and is a beautiful woman.There are vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows. However, the wooden door has not been opened, and there is no light, why can these be observed?Tian Tian looked around and finally understood why.There is a paper door open between the connected six-mat room, and the lights hanging from the ceiling of the six-mat room shine here.Although it is not very bright, the woman's bed is close to the paper door, and the light can shine through. This lamp was also off, but was it turned on when the neighbors or the deceased's brother came?Or the lights of the six-seat room were always on in this house at night?When Tian Tian looked carefully, he found a thin string hanging from under the bowl-shaped lampshade.Apparently it's for a switch, and it's three-stage. At the moment, the weak light is about ten watts. The supervisors sprinkled white powder on the paper doors, corridors, and wooden doors in the south.There were footsteps and voices outside.Because fingerprints are also taken on the outside of the wooden door.The room will be brighter when the work is done and the wooden door is opened. Detailed sketches can only be drawn after the room is bright.But drawing in the dark is also an exercise.So Soeda stared around, and saw a doll of Kintaro riding a bear.It was a congratulatory decoration for a boy's birthday.
Section Chief Sugiura moved the time to meet with the reporter, Yano Shoichi, and the victim's brother, and took the police from the police station to the reception room of the family first. It was ten o'clock at this time, the wooden doors had all been opened, and it was cloudy outside. "Nagasaki-kun, you've been too busy early in the morning." The head of the section is very familiar with this policeman named Taro Nagasaki. Nagasaki is a 42-year-old senior police officer. "There, the head of the class is also working hard!" "Please tell me what happened after you arrived here." "Okay." Nagasaki opened his mouth with one missing front tooth and said, "I received a call from Shoichi Yano, and I heard that Numai and his wife were killed by robbers, so I immediately called Dr. Murase and told him what happened here. Address, please come here immediately. I also considered an ambulance, but I met Dr. Murase on the chessboard, so I went to him first." "Very good, better than calling an ambulance." "I entered the eight-seat room, and what I saw was the scene just now. I stopped immediately, trying to turn on the light switch on the wall." "Are the lights off? Are the connected six-seater rooms not lit?" "The light is on. It is said that in order to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, only the six-seat room has a small light on all night." "So that's why the small light in the six-seat room is still on." "However, the light was not bright enough, and the eight-mat room where the crime was committed could not be seen clearly, so I turned on the light in the eight-mat room. But Numai Heiyoshi, who was hunched over the sleeping bunk, suddenly turned his head and said: Don't touch the wall , there may be fingerprints of the murderer. Therefore, I did not turn on the light and drew my hand back." "The wife next to me was killed, and I was also killed. At this time, you still worry about the fingerprints of the murderer and prevent others from touching the light switch on the wall? Heiyoshi Numai is very calm." "I admire it very much. I am not as calm as him in my job, and I feel very ashamed. It is said that when Numai went to bring his neighbor Yano Shou, he also stopped Yano who wanted to turn on the light." "Numai didn't call Yano to tell Yano that there was a murder, but walked over and said it?" "Yes, because it's a neighbor, it's only a three-minute walk. It is said that it is much clearer to speak by yourself than by phone." "Isn't he injured?" "Although I was injured, as I said just now, I only suffered minor injuries to my chest and right hand. Although the yukata was stained with a lot of blood." ——The section chief and the coroner looked at the body together. Numai Heiyoshi's wife Tomiko had only one injury.Stabbed into the left neck with a sharp sashimi knife.Although an autopsy is required to further understand, according to the coroner, it seems that the left posterior carotid artery and the left and right internal jugular veins were severed.Therefore, died instantly. However, when Fuzi woke up for a while, he probably heard the noise made by the murderer.Therefore, the murderer immediately assassinated her.So did the coroner's opinion.The wife beside him died on the spot, but the husband was only slightly injured. Section Chief Sugiura handed a cigarette to the policeman at the police station, and took one himself, white smoke lingering on his thin-haired head. "So, did Heiyoshi Numai see the robber?" "Heiyoshi Numai said that because of the darkness, although he could see the back of the robber escaping from the six-seat room, he couldn't see his clothes and features clearly." "However, although the eight-seat room where the couple sleeps is not turned on, isn't the connected six-seat room turned on?" Sugiura asked while looking at the policeman with the white beard root under his chin. "It was on, but he said that because it was a small light and it lasted for a split second, he couldn't see clearly, and he woke up only after feeling a burning pain in his throat and neck. When he found that his neck was full of blood, he was shocked." "I really don't know if the wife next to me was killed?" "He said he was in a deep sleep, so he didn't know. He heard noises and his wife's groans in his sleep, but he didn't wake up because of these sounds. When he woke up, he was injured." The section chief extinguished the shortened cigarette butt held between his fingertips in the ashtray. "I'll ask him about this later. Then, what is missing from the house? The wardrobe is well locked, and there is no trace of being rummaged. Why can the marsh be sure to be a robber?" "Because the wallet is missing, I think it's a robber." "Wallet? What kind of wallet?" "A black leather wallet that can be folded in half to hold bills, just the size of a 10,000-yen bill. He said it was hidden under the quilt of the pillow." "How much money is in it?" "Seventy-two thousand five hundred yen. Seven ten-thousand-yen bills, two thousand-yen bills, and one five-hundred-yen bill." "Ah, I just found this wallet." "Really? Where did you find it?" The policeman's eyes widened. "In the upper cabinet on the other side of the alcove, the wallet contains exactly the same amount." "Strange." The policeman scratched his nose. "Is his memory wrong?" "No, he remembered to put it under the quilt. Because he couldn't find it, he said the robbers came in." "Let's wait a while before asking him carefully." "Chairman, have you found the murder weapon?" This time it was the Nagasaki policeman's turn to ask. "I found it. When I searched the back of the house just now, I found a knife for cutting sashimi from the gutter. Because it sank under the water, no fingerprints can be taken. Although the blood is thin, there is still there. This knife may be It was a kitchen item here, consistent with the wound on the victim's neck." There is no sewer in this area yet, and the city government has announced that construction will begin in this area next year.Residents of nearby residential areas were the first to make requests to the authorities. If the sewer is completed, the murderer will not throw the murder weapon into the sewer and discard his fingerprints, will he not be washed away by muddy water? "The murderer used a knife as a murder weapon in the kitchen at home. It can be seen that the murderer did not enter for the purpose of killing or hurting, right? Because if there was such a plan in advance, he would have brought the murder weapon. Then, this case may be a murder with a grudge. .” The section chief didn't pay much attention to this speculation, showing a somewhat unhappy expression. "Nagasaki-kun, tell me about your arrival." "Okay, as ordered. When I arrived by bicycle, it was about seven o'clock in the morning. Before that, call Dr. Murase. The neighbor who reported the crime, Yano Shoichi, was waiting for me at the back door of this house. The back door was open. This is the wounded Numai opened it when he went to Yano's house to report." "There is no sign of the suspect climbing over the wall, and there is no abnormality in the door behind." "When I arrived, because Numai had already opened the door, I didn't pay attention to see if the suspect had opened it. I was only anxious to go to the scene where Mrs. Numai was killed." "That's for sure. Then, what happens after entering the eight-seat room?" "When I entered the eight-seat room, Mrs. Numai Tomiko was lying in a pool of blood, and Numai Heiyoshi was bowed and squatting." "Okay, then what?" "I took out the flashlight to shine on Mrs. Numai, and found that she was no longer breathing. When the flashlight illuminated pools of shining blood, it was really scary." "Were Tomiko's eyes open at that time?" "No, eyes closed." "Then, was Heiyoshi Numai the one who closed his wife's eyelids?" "I don't know, I haven't asked him yet, maybe he did it." "You say her brother is here? Did he do it?" "When Tomiko's brother arrived, Dr. Murase had been here for 20 minutes, so it wasn't him. Dr. Murase arrived at 7:10, and this brother didn't arrive until around 7:30. Tomiko's brother is called Yukio Ishii, Open a grocery store in △△ Town.” The head teacher recorded the key points. "When you looked at Tomiko with a flashlight as a light source, what was Heingchi doing?" "Heiyoshi Numai was crying and humming." "What did you say while crying?" "Didn't say anything, just cry." "and then?" "Dr. Murase arrived just in the middle of this. He took the flashlight I handed him and examined Tomiko's wound." "What is Pinji doing all this?" "Heiyoshi asked Dr. Murase: Doctor, Tomiko is dead, right?" "He didn't ask: Can it be saved, but said: Is it already dead?" "Yes, it seems that I already know that my wife has passed away." "Pingji himself was injured, he must ask Dr. Murase to heal him quickly." "No, he didn't say. He was watching the doctor examine Tomiko's wound with the light of a flashlight." "Then he is quite calm. Wasn't he still crying just now?" "When I saw Tomiko's body, he was crying. But when Dr. Murase arrived, he had regained his composure." "How was Pingji when Fuzi's brother came?" "I was there at that time. When Pingji saw this brother-in-law, he immediately said: Brother, I'm sorry." "say sorry?" "Yes, he said so." While moving the pen on the notebook, the head of the section asked: "What does it mean?" "Probably slept together, but the wife was killed, so apologize to the wife's brother?" "Hmm, um." Section Chief Sugiura took the notebook away and looked at the words he had written. "So, what about Ishii's older brother?" "Look at my younger sister, Tomiko, and know that Mr. Murase is a doctor, so I said to him: Doctor, is my sister hopeless? If there is still hope, please call an ambulance and send it to the hospital for first aid. Seeing Dr. Murase shake his head , Ishii said, "Fuzi, you are pitiful, pitiful, and weeping." "What is Pinji doing all this?" "Pingji said to me: Please hurry up and arrest this vicious robber, and sentence him to death as punishment." "Does Pinji absolutely believe that the robbers came in and killed his wife and wounded him?" "Yes, because the wallet under the quilt is missing, so it is believed to be a robber." "Who sent Pinji to the hospital?" "It's me. Heiyoshi seems to be bleeding a lot, so I discussed with Dr. Murase and took his car to the hospital. The director of the hospital is an alumnus of Dr. Murase. I thought that Heingyoshi should wait here until the Sugiura class. After you came, but he was bleeding a lot, and Dr. Murase thought it was best to send him to the hospital for emergency treatment. I thought about it, it would be better if he passed out before interrogating Pingji." The policeman at the police station said to himself The measures are differentiated. "No, you handled it well, Nagasaki-kun." Section Chief Sugiura smiled reassuringly.
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