Chapter 52
The phone kept ringing. Sato stretched, reached for his phone on the bedside table, and answered it without checking who was calling.
"......What's up?"
The officer said, "Officer Sato, there's a murder case in the North District. We need you to come over right away."
After hanging up the phone, Sato immediately got up, rushed into the bathroom, took a five-minute shower, changed into casual clothes, and drove to the crime scene.
About half an hour has passed.
He parked his car by the roadside and came to a desolate, endless expanse of reeds.
The morning fog hadn't dissipated yet, and dew still clung to the reed stalks. More than a dozen police officers stood in a row, keeping an arm's length apart, searching westward, their clothes already soaked through.
However, because the reed beds covered such a large area, it was impossible to cordon them off with warning tape.
Sato looked around and asked, "Where's the body?"
The young police officer greeted Sato awkwardly, stammering, "...We haven't found it yet, and the police dog is still on its way."
Sato turned around and saw the evidence bag handed to him. He looked at it carefully and then understood.
“This bloodstained garment was found by an elderly man who came here to fish this morning,” the young officer said, adjusting his glasses. “I’ve already checked online; it’s an ordinary men’s suit jacket, inexpensive, and very common in style. It’s a no-name brand, but a top choice for office workers. I didn’t find any identification in the pockets, so it’s hard to determine his identity.”
Sato put on gloves, wiped the blood off the reed, and sniffed it. "You're the student who graduated with two degrees from Harvard?"
Sagara instinctively swallowed and nodded. "Yes."
This is the third person transferred to their department. Sato is too lazy to waste his energy on this kind of person. He has a pretty face, is tall and thin, and has a bookish temperament. You can tell at a glance that he is not physically strong, let alone when he is on field duty. They work overtime every day to solve cases, and he probably won't last long before he runs away.
The department already deals with tricky cases, so if I really become his assistant, I'll have to take care of him handing over his work.
He hates people who mess things up at crucial moments and then spill the oil.
"You should also look for it."
Sagara was taken aback. He wondered how the chief had assigned him to be an assistant, so he ended up participating in the search operation.
But I still obediently did as instructed.
Sato returned to his car, put two candies in his mouth and chewed them, thought for a moment, then started the car and drove away.
Hearing the noise, Sagara turned around and looked back, but the car was already gone.
He thought to himself, "Wow, this guy drives really fast."
The police officer next to him comforted him, saying, "Don't worry about it. Sato-senpai is usually very understanding. It's probably because of what happened recently that he's a little upset."
Sagara asked, "What happened?"
The officer sighed, his tone tinged with helplessness: "A month ago, a trainee officer sent from Tokyo was also a top student. The chief thought highly of him and assigned him to be an assistant to Senior Sato. However, he encountered a rape and murder case. The victim's family came to the police station every day to keep watch. In less than half a month, the young officer couldn't handle the pressure and ran away. The department was already short-staffed, so the senior officer told him to close the case before leaving and to continue the stakeout. But unexpectedly, that young officer had connections in his family and was transferred the next day. He didn't even tell the department when he left. When the senior officer found out, he was so angry that he almost overturned the table."
Sagara nodded silently and said, "That is indeed very irresponsible."
The officer continued, "Sigh, that young officer was just a rich kid. He watched too many TV dramas and read too many newspapers. He has no idea what people have to bear behind a murder case. However, he was also influenced by getting too close to the victim's family. The rape and murder case was too heavy. The victim's parents argued because of the case, and later not only did they divorce, but they also lost their jobs. They also have a six-year-old son to support..."
After thinking for a long time, Sagara said with a serious and firm expression, "Senior, I will do my best in my job!"
"I'm on your side!" The officer patted him on the shoulder and continued the search.
-
By 2 p.m., the theater was already packed with people.
The enormous crystal chandelier hanging above the stage drew everyone's attention until the overture began, at which point everyone's focus shifted.
Christine took to the stage and stood in the center of the stage, which was covered with gold and black silk. Her appearance and attire drew whispers of amazement and praise from the audience.
Rina had already read the original novel and had anticipated what would happen next.
The Phantom discovers Christine's singing talent by chance and begins to teach her to sing, transforming her from an unknown backup dancer into a rising star at the Paris Opera. In the process, the Phantom even develops feelings for Christine.
To give Christine more performance opportunities, he orchestrated several bizarre and strange events at the theater, all so that Christine could showcase her talent.
Christine sees the Phantom as a musical angel. So when Viscount Raul appears, it disrupts the balance between her and the Phantom. After their reunion, Raul and Christine fall in love and secretly get engaged.
Their romance fueled the Phantom's jealousy. Unable to bear Christine being taken away by another, he began to sabotage their relationship by any means necessary, forcing the theater to stage his opera "Don Giovanni's Triumph" and demanding that Christine play the lead role.
On the opening night, he killed the original male lead and went on stage to act opposite Christine. Unfortunately, Christine tore off the Phantom's mask in front of everyone.
Then, in a fit of rage, the Phantom took her to the underground kingdom. Raul arrived for a duel, but the Phantom strangled him with a rope. He threatened Raul's life to force Christine to agree to his marriage proposal. Fortunately, Christine walked towards him, and a kiss on her cheek made her realize her mistake. In the end, the Phantom granted their wish and returned to the underground labyrinth alone.
At the end, the Phantom is left alone in the underground labyrinth, the crystal chandelier slowly rises, and the instrumental music lingers in the air for a long time.
Kurosawa noticed that Rina wasn't immersed in the performance. She glanced at her phone halfway through and started to get distracted. Her hand was resting on the armrest of her seat, tapping it absently. Although it didn't make any noise, he definitely noticed that her mind wasn't on the opera performance at all.
She was more concerned about the content of the email; perhaps it wasn't just an ordinary advertisement at all.
He noticed this detail at the Haicheng Manor, but he didn't pay attention to it at the time. Now that he thinks about it carefully, it's surprising that Lina, who is too lazy to even look at the advertising leaflets handed to her, was distracted by an electronic advertisement.
After the actors finished their curtain call, the audience began to leave their seats, some of them still savoring the scene that had just unfolded.
“Sister,” Kurosawa Shiran tried to get her attention, at least so that Rina could have him in her eyes, “I don’t understand why Phantom let go in the end.”
Rina snapped out of her thoughts and turned to look at him. "What about you?"
Kurosawa Shiran truthfully said, "Kill that troublesome count and imprison Christine forever."
Rina: "Phantom may be incomplete, but she is still someone who longs to be loved and redeemed. Your idea is to destroy everyone, including Christine."
Kurosawa Shiran couldn't understand why, if he cared, he would choose to let her go and watch her fall in love with someone else.
He asked, "Wouldn't the Phantom like Christine?"
At this point, the person sitting next to him couldn't help but interject: "Why would you think that? In their story, even if Christine didn't love the Phantom, the Phantom loved Christine until his death. How could he possibly love someone else? What you're saying is absurd!"
Rina looked at Kurosawa Shiran and couldn't help but smile, then took his hand and said, "You can think about their relationship seriously."
Kurosawa Shiran paused for a moment, then remained silent.
"Try to understand." After Rina finished speaking, she suddenly heard a sob and couldn't help but turn around and look.
Actually, as soon as she entered, she noticed that the woman sitting behind her was the same one she had met the night before, while the seat next to her had remained empty.
Tokiko tried to call Munakata, but his phone was switched off.
She was angry because her boyfriend stood her up at the start of the opera, but now two and a half hours have passed and he hasn't called back, which makes her feel uneasy.
Previously, Zongfang had never acted like this. Even when they argued, he always tried to solve the problem instead of turning off his phone, standing her up, or ignoring her.
Tokiko was emotionally distraught. She tried calling Munakata's friends and colleagues, but they all said they hadn't seen him.
Rina stood up, ruffled Kurosawa Shiran's hair, and said, "Let's go."
"Sister, where are we going next?" Kurosawa Shiran followed behind her, wanting to take her hand, but when she saw her checking her phone again, she withdrew her hand.
Rina looked down at her phone, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's go to the cake shop on the west side to buy some pastries first, then go to the supermarket, and finally go home."
Kurosawa Shiran: "Is my sister on a date with me?"
Rina: "What do you think?"
Kurosawa Shiran blinked her eyelashes. "My sister wants me to try to integrate into society."
"You're pretty smart, at least you thought of that. The opera wasn't a waste of time, Rina: "So what do you think is missing from our date?"
Kurosawa Shiran watched her fall silent.
Just then, Rina received a phone call.
"In the Parkway Building, locker number four, locker number two seven."
The caller ID showed only one number, and after speaking, the call ended.
The two returned to the car. Kurosawa Shiran was expressionless as he started the car and drove to the Parkway Building. Then he followed her to the lockers next to the mall's checkout counter.
Rina stood in front of the cabinet and skillfully entered a password. With a click, the cabinet opened, and she took out a stack of documents wrapped in an envelope from the small compartment.
Once they were back in the car, Kurosawa Shiran caught a whiff of the pungent perfume on the envelope and couldn't help but ask, "What is my sister investigating?"
Rina stared at the fine dust particles floating in the air, thought for a while, and then opened the envelope, pouring out the photos and autopsy report inside.
She had no intention of hiding it, so when Kurosawa Shiran saw the man in the photo with a bullet in the center of his head, she immediately understood.
She was investigating Dante's death.
Isn't this case being investigated secretly by Gen Shimono?
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