Chapter 31 third quarter

On the 15th, that is, the day of the burying ceremony.In order to supply flowers to President Nishi-no-hata, all the red-and-white flowers and star anises in the flower shops in the city were sold out.The funeral started at ten o'clock in the morning.The Bodhi Temple of the Nishinohata family-Shouwan Temple is a famous temple of the Shingon sect. It was built under the tap water tower in the western suburbs of Nagaoka City and in front of the water flow of the Shinano River.The usually old tree-luxury courtyard is almost invisible.Such a quiet temple, only today is as lively as a market.Even if the partitions between the two halls of the main hall were removed, there were still some guests who couldn’t squeeze in, so they had to sit under the temporary shed in the garden.

In front of the photo of Kosuke Nishinohata on the altar, several monks knelt and chanted scriptures while knocking on wooden fish.They must be reading scriptures that will bring people to the ultimate bliss. However, for those who don’t know the meaning, the sound of reading the scriptures will feel more and more hot and unbearable.Atsuko also sat beside her parents and kept fanning the wind. Just as cigarettes were curling up from Juganji Temple and surrounded by flowers, on the other hand, in Kurojo, Detective Sudou and Seki Detective who came from Tokyo were led down to the murder scene by a police officer from Nagaoka Station to listen to the other party's explanation of the situation.Sudou, who was wearing a Panama hat and a white shirt, had a puzzled expression; no, not just doubts, but also a look of embarrassment in his expression.The sun was shining above his head, and he nodded as he listened to the explanation, and with a dirty kapok handkerchief, he roughly wiped the sweat that flowed from his forehead to his neck.

Although Nagaoka is an industrial city, when you step out of the suburbs, you can see paddy fields and dry fields as far as the eye can see.The murder scene, Kurojo, is located further north from Zao-cho, an industrial zone. From the map, although Kurojo is incorporated into Nagaoka City, because it is a newly developed area, it is mostly dry land, which is quite lonely.In a local small broad-leaved forest, the former killer Chita Banping was stabbed in the chest and died in shame this time.Last night, when the Nagaoka Department inquired about the identity of the deceased from the search headquarters, the unexpected content of the inquiry shocked the people in the headquarters. For a long time, no one could speak.

Chita's body was almost cold when officers drove them to the scene of the murder from the Nagaoka Prefectural Police Station's Ote-dori street in front of Nagaoka Station. The hat of the deceased was opened upwards, and rolled down to the bottom of the lumber tree two meters away.Checking his wallet, he found four 1,000-yen bills, small change, and a receipt for "OKESA".A criminal policeman went to the hotel immediately.Seeing the name of Mikawa-cho, which no longer existed, on the accommodation list, the detective immediately realized that this person must not be a serious person.A few hours later, the reply from Tokyo proved that the person who called himself Ma Yuan was Zhi Duo Banping.

How could Zhiduo, a vigilant and oppressive person, be killed so simply?The search headquarters in Tokyo was very puzzled by this.But after the urea-based sedative was found on the deceased, the mystery was easily solved.The police speculated that the deceased should have been given sleeping pills by the murderer without knowing it, and was stabbed to death when he was drowsy. After finishing the on-site evidence collection work, Sudou and the three walked out of the woods and sat on the suitable grass.In front of them was a road leading to a village called Fukushima.There is no one around here, only the locusts in the grass keep chirping.

"Which is that factory?" Where Sudou pointed, there was a tall gray chimney. "That's the Nagaoka factory of Osaka Machinery, and the one on the far left is Hokuetsu Denka." One of the two chimneys of the Electrification of North Vietnam belches plumes of smoke.Not even a little wind today. Suddenly, they heard the sound of a siren.It was a train departing from Kitanagaoka Station to Niigata, and it moved slowly from left to right in the sight of the three of them.The embankment of the tracks, blooming with cream-coloured evening primroses, swayed under the wind pressure of the trains.

"Mr. Sudou, why did Chita get killed in this kind of place? In Nagaoka, which is unfamiliar to him..." Seki watched the train going further and further away, then turned his healthy and dark face to the back and asked Sudou. "... I think that Chita came to Nagaoka, and avoiding the police is certainly one of the reasons. The other reason may be that the murderer ordered him to come." Sudou paused for a moment, and answered while thinking. "Recall what President Nishi-no-hata's driver said. Didn't he say that Chita's car followed them when they were in Shimbashi?"

Hearing what he said, Guan also remembered.Sudou pinched the mustache under his nose with his fingers, twisted the beard and continued. "That's what I thought. At that time, Zhiduo wanted to replace the shamanism to punish the president, as we expected, and was always looking for opportunities to harm him. But at that time, there was another person who wanted the president's life just like him. .” "Who could it be?" "I don't have a clue yet, but that night, Zhita, who was following the president, accidentally witnessed the scene where someone killed the president. At this time, what do you think Zhita will do?"

"He's supposed to intimidate the murderer." "That's right, because this guy has too many previous convictions. He will definitely blackmail the murderer. In the end, the murderer X accepted his request, saying that after Nagaoka paid him, he gave him travel expenses and accommodation expenses .” "It should be like this. I heard from the boss of 'OKESA' that Chita doesn't seem to be short of money at all. He eats luxurious food and spends his days having fun." A police officer from Nagaoka Station interjected from the sidelines. "I also agree with your idea. However, who is manipulating Narayama Genkichi?"

Guan inadvertently confides the question that emerges in his mind.When they identified Zhita as the murderer, they thought that the person who used Narayama Genkichi was Zhita, and the person who poisoned him in order to keep his mouth shut was naturally Zhita.In other words, they interpreted this case as knowing that Zhita arranged for a double to appear in other places when he committed the murder, misleading the police to set the time of the crime later than the actual time to create an alibi, but it was a coincidence Unfortunately, the unexpected accident that the body fell on the train made his well-designed fake alibi go to waste, so he had to choose to abscond.

However, if Chita is only a supporting role in this case, then who is the character X hidden in the shadow who asked Narayama Genkichi to put on a fake beard and show up to "Lan Lan"?This point is really impossible to penetrate. "Is this..." It seemed that Sudou accidentally forgot about Narayama just now, he hastily squeezed his mustache again. "...In short, can't all of our speculations about Narayama Genkichi so far be fully applied to the murderer X?" "why?" "In order to pretend that the president was killed after leaving 'Lan Lan', the person who arranged the performance doesn't have to be Zhita, it can be arranged by the murderer X. But because the body fell on that train The above two incidents, as well as the fact that Chita, the intimidator, witnessed the murder scene, made the murderer X use the alibi carefully designed by Narayama Genkichi to waste." Indeed, after carefully listening to Sudou's explanation, Seki also felt that this was the case. After a little silence, he raised his face again, because he thought of another question. "However, it's not entirely certain that the person who wants to use Narayama to make these arrangements is the murderer, isn't he? If Chita also has the idea of ​​killing the president, he also needs to be prepared to forge the alibi." The minister's tanned face wrinkled, and he twitched his beard again.The two fell into a moment of silence. "...However, you can also think of it this way. If Zhita used Narayama as a substitute and made those preparations, then the time when he planned to kill the president can be calculated from the time when the substitute left 'Lan Lan'. It was around half past eleven." "why?" Because the other party only spoke half of what he had said, Guan asked intuitively.The Minister of Interpol answered thoughtfully, his way of speaking seemed to be carefully recreating the trajectory of his own thinking. "If it's too far away from 11:30, there will be a big gap between the time of death calculated from the results of the autopsy and the time when the substitute left 'Lan Lan', and it's easy for people to spot the person who appeared in the Chinese restaurant Maybe it's a substitute. Even if you don't see that he is a substitute, it may make people think that although the man eating noodles at 'Lanlan' looks like the president, he is actually just another person who looks alike. If so, arrange Isn't it meaningless to be a substitute?" "I see." "From this, it can be judged that Zhiduo's planned murder time should be around 11:30. In this way, the time of the real murderer's crime is 11:40, and Zhiduo's scheduled time to commit the crime is around 11:30, which is equal to Not only do these two people want the president's life, but they even have the exact same time of attack, how could there be such a coincidence? And if the coincidence is denied, it means that the theory that Chita used Narayama as a stand-in cannot be established." Guan admired him very much, and looked at Sudou with admiration.Although he has a not-so-intelligent face, like an old man living in a dark alley, the profound analytical ability cultivated by his years of life as a criminal policeman is really impressive.When I lived to the same age as the chief criminal policeman, would I be able to make such incisive reasoning?Thinking of this, Guan felt a little uneasy. "But you guys are really amazing. His body was thrown away in such an inaccessible place, and you can still find it." After being accosted by Sudou, the detective from the Nagaoka Station finally turned around and looked at Sudou with a sense of fascination.His face looked strangely black in the light reflected from the leaves. "Sorry, I was listening to cicadas just now. It is very unusual for cicadas to sing so early." The other party argued a little embarrassedly.However, the discussion between Sudou and Seki was so boring that it was only natural for those listening to it to think that their minds were wandering away. "It was discovered by a farmer passing by here. He called 110 to report the crime. The police officer rushed over from the nearby police station and judged that it was a homicide, so we rushed over." "The time of the crime is speculated to be between 2:15 and 2:30. Is this conjecture reliable?" "Yes, it was almost three o'clock when we arrived, and the blood was not even dry." He threw away the cigarette butt, and after carefully stamping it out with his heel, he stretched out his hand and picked off the blade of grass, and took it into his mouth. "President Nishi-no-hata's burial ceremony happens to be today, so it may have something to do with it." The two detectives looked at him with unconcealed surprise on their faces.He closed his mouth and opened his mouth slightly, revealing his yellow teeth. "So, have all the people from the company come here?" "Yes, many people came here from Tokyo to attend the funeral. The Nagaoka local factory in Zao Town also sent cadres to attend. The ceremony seemed to be very luxurious and grand. The chairperson was also present." The detectives in Tokyo looked at each other's faces, and now they seemed to understand why the murderer had specially called Chita to Nagaoka.In short, what is certain at present is that the murderer must be among the group of people who are now coming to Nagaoka. "Kinokubo and Narumi should be removed from the list of suspects." After a while, Sudou said. "They had a perfect alibi when the president was killed." Guan said confidently, because he found it out on his own business trip, so he was very sure. "Indeed. And there is no need for the two of them to arrange for Narayama Genkichi to be the president's stand-in." When the minister told the police, Guan realized that he had never noticed this matter.Looking back, it is indeed as he said, no matter whether the president was killed before 11:40 or later, the alibi of the chairman and vice chairman and the others sitting on the Hokuriku main line train at that time will not have any effect.Lianzhiwa, Narumi, Zhita, all the people who were regarded as suspects before, are now innocent one by one. The boundless silence continued to spread, and they all felt painfully that they had made a fundamental mistake in the direction of their search. There was a sudden cry of cicadas above their heads.The sound of cicadas, whether in Tokyo or Nagaoka, is called exactly the same without distinction.