Chapter 21 second quarter
In the reception room on the second floor of the Showa Bank, apart from the department head who came out of the rent warehouse, there were also Detective Sudo and Detective Seki whom Haibara had met yesterday.Sudou was dressed in a neat suit, while Seki was wearing an open shirt without a tie and a white linen jacket. From the fact that his white canvas summer shoes had been dirty and turned gray, one could imagine how he was running around handling cases yesterday.
"There are only three or four banks other than us that have rental pools."
After greeting each other, the head of the department spoke and continued from where he left off.
"After the Xiashan incident, the bank has become well-known, and many customers want to come to our rental bank. Therefore, we have to give priority to customers who have opened accounts with the bank."
"What is the approximate size?"
"From No. A to No. G, there are seven categories. No. A is a small safe for storing documents, and No. G is a large space where two or three people can walk in. It seems that everyone is here. We Now lead the way for everyone."
After the department head left the reception room, he brought back a young pilot in a short while.
"This is the manager of the rental warehouse, named Xiao Dao. Although there are two managers of the rent warehouse, when Mr. Tian Xi Zhi Ban came to visit the day before yesterday, it was Xiao Dao who received him."
A young man named Xiaodao greeted the guests politely and thoughtfully. He was thin and pale, and his hair was still shiny with pomade.
"Do you remember what happened when you saw Nishi No Hata?" Sudou immediately asked.
"Yes, but it was the day before yesterday, so I remember it very clearly."
"Does he look weird?"
"No, nothing strange."
"What time did he come here?"
"A little after ... one o'clock. I had just finished my lunch and I was just getting back to my seat. About forty minutes after that, he came to the bank again."
"Again? Did you say he came twice?"
The police officer's voice suddenly increased, which stunned the pilot who didn't know the cause and effect, and he stared fixedly at the other party's face.But Sudou wasn't the only one who was surprised, the lawyer, secretary, and the criminal policeman also had expressions of astonishment on their faces.
After Kosuke Nishinomata left the company, he drove to the bank by himself, and then went to an unknown location to finish something, then passed by the bank again on the way back, and finally returned to the company.They immediately thought that Nishi Nobata should have taken out something from the vault, held it to meet someone, and then put it back into the vault.And what would that be?As long as you investigate the contents of the treasury, you will be able to find out the truth.
"How long has he been in front of the vault?"
"You mean Mr. Nishi-no-hata? Let me think about it, only about three or four minutes. Open the vault and take out the safe, probably this time is enough."
"Thank you, then please lead the way." Sudou got up and left his seat after finishing the interrogation.
The four men followed Xiao Daoxing and the department head down to the first floor, and then continued down the stairs to the basement. Under the fluorescent light, the polished marble stairs gave off a cold light. The lawyer saw This scene instantly created the illusion that he was in the bone tower.
After descending the stairs, there was a steel door standing directly in front of them.After Xiaodao inserted the key, he pushed it away.
"There are four such doors, and of course the keys are all different."
When the second door opened, the chief turned his head and explained to the group of people behind him.
To open the fourth door, you need to pass through three small rooms, and after opening the fourth impenetrable door, you will find a large rental warehouse of nearly 200 square meters.In the neatly arranged cabinets, the appearance of black steel safes juxtaposed silently is indeed exactly the same as that of the bone tower.
"Does the door have four layers? It's really heavily guarded here."
"Our usual access management is actually much stricter than it is now. We are already very familiar with Mr. Nishi Nobata, so he didn't check very strictly when he came, but for ordinary guests, you have to confirm the address and name first, and then ask the age , and compare it with the portraits recorded in our records, and if they all match, we will bring him to this basement. Of course, a seal is also necessary."
The head of the department and the crew led the four of them back and forth among countless cabinets without hesitation.
"It's here. Mr. Nishi-no-hata rented size C, which is a medium-sized box specially used for storing documents like size A. Xiaodao, open it."
There are two keyholes on the door of the vault. Xiaodao inserted the key she was carrying into the holes and turned it around.
"In this way, the treasury is half opened. Every rental treasury uses this method. To open the door of the treasury, two keys are needed, one is held by the user himself, and the other is kept by the bank. The mechanism for taking out the items is that Xiaodao will leave the scene immediately after opening the lock, and wait outside the entrance door. The guests who stay here will use their own keys to open another lock to get the items out. This time Because of our duty, we are here to testify."
The department head took out his special master key to open the door of the vault, and took a step to the side.
"Come, please."
"Mr. Hugu, can you help me open it?"
Sudou said with some concerns.Although it is for the investigation of a murder case, it is most appropriate to leave it to the counselor of the deceased to open the safe that contains the secrets of the deceased.On the other hand, he thought that if he was given three points of face in this place, it would not be a problem to ask him about other situations.
Hugu pulled out the steel safe with his hand, making a small crashing sound.After opening the lid, there were several large brown paper envelopes tied with faded green ribbons. There were nine envelopes in total, each of which seemed to contain some certificate or something.Ten pairs of eyes stared at Lawyer Hugu's hand, looking at the contents of the envelope he was checking.
The seven envelopes are all the stocks of first-class companies that are recognized as the main stocks.But from the eighth envelope, there was a stock of an industrial company located in Nagaoka.
"What kind of company is this optical industry?"
"It's the paint company."
"Why does he have this useless country company stock?"
"It's the hometown of the president, so he had to buy it." The secretary replied as if feeling bored.
From the last envelope, there are real estate related certificates and three photos.Those certificates are the contracts signed by both parties when buying and selling the forest or villa, and there is no problem.Sudou turned his gaze to the three photos, but one of them had been torn in half, so to be precise, it should be two and a half.
Two of them were pictures of a little girl.Seeing the back of the photo, it says Wakatake Hisako (two years old) and Wakatake Hisako (five years old), and you know that the two photos are of the same child.Both photos should be failed photos taken by novices, because there is no filter installed, the boundary between the sky and the floating clouds looks blurred.On the trail next to the woods, there is a rough-looking handmade baby carriage that seems to be barely assembled from wood chips. In the baby carriage, two-year-old Wakatake Hisako opened her small mouth, as if screaming.Judging from the clothes on her body, the time to take pictures should be in summer.
The five-year-old Wakatake Hisako stood in front of the courtyard, showing an intimate and pleasant smile. Her small face was tanned and showed a healthy complexion.From the straw roofs and the fruity persimmon trees in the background, it can be seen that this should be a snapshot of the autumn countryside.
Unlike the other two photos, the third photo is of a young woman.She was standing facing the front, not very neatly dressed in a gorgeous kimono, with a pair of slippers on her feet.From the structure of the building behind her and a car parked in the distance, it can be deduced that this photo was taken in the city.It's just that in that photo, the upper part of the woman's body has been torn away, and her appearance cannot be judged only by looking at the remaining lower body.
"How? Did you find any clues?" asked the lawyer.
"This photo is...?"
"I have no idea."
"Does Mr. Haibara know?"
"I do not know either."
Huiyuan has been staring at the photo curiously since just now, it seems that his sentence of "I don't know" should be true.But what exactly did Nishinohata take from the three photos and the reams of securities and certificates?It is really hard for outsiders to guess.
"If I can. I have to close the door..."
The head of the bank said that the lawyer put the brown paper envelope back in the box, and Sudou did the same.Keep looking at these things, and things will not progress.
"May I ask if we need to look at this safe again when the investigation is necessary?" Detective Sudou turned his attention to the lawyer.
"Yes, as long as you make a request according to the established procedures, you can come and see it at any time."
"We're not sure if this will be necessary, and if so, we don't know when, but in any case, before this case is solved, I hope you try not to touch the contents of this safe. I don't think this case will take long That’s the way to solve the case.”
"It should be fine. If the widow wants to liquidate the estate and dispose of these stocks, I will notify you in advance."
Lawyer Kutani kindly agreed to the police's request, which made Sudou heave a sigh of relief.Upsetting the seemingly neurotic legal expert could hamper the investigation.
After thanking the department head and the staff, the four left the bank.
The sunshine in early summer was too strong for eyes accustomed to artificial light. The four of them put their hands on their foreheads to block the light, and the sun was so dazzling that they kept blinking.After saying goodbye to the detectives, the secretary opened the car door.
"Mr. Hugu, I'll take you back."
"No, I still have to take the subway to a place."
Hu Gu politely declined Hui Yuan's offer to give him a ride.And when Huiyuan drove away, the lawyer turned his head to look at Sudou and the others, and said in a heavy tone: "Mr. Interpol, Huiyuan was here just now, so I didn't say anything. Actually, I know who the people in those two photos are. Who."
Notes:
Notes: