Chapter 56
Rina got dressed and went downstairs. She turned on the TV, changed several channels, and finally stopped at Ms. Fujiwara Yukino's campaign speech.
With the mayor's term nearing its end, the local election management committee had already set the election date in accordance with the law.
If Rina remembers correctly, it should have started yesterday.
The campaign begins with candidate registration and continues until the day before election day.
Candidates can express their political views through radio and television, or by giving speeches on the streets and holding candidate rally meetings.
Of course, support groups and election agencies can also promote candidates' education, work experience, and election pledges, and send postcards to voters.
However, it's still too bizarre that a candidate would be associated with an assassin organization.
Rina picked up a glass of milk, sat on the sofa, and flipped through the newspaper. Sure enough, the column "Nine male corpses buried deep under Lover's Lake, unfaithful man suffers retribution?" was on the same page as the candidate's speech.
The name below the title of the speech was that of Hideo Kawashima, whom I had met just a few months ago.
There are three candidates this time, but so far, there has been no news about the man named Suzuki Takeji.
Kurosawa Shiran secretly hugged the person from behind the sofa and said in a sticky voice, "Sister, breakfast is ready."
Just as she was feeling down, Rina snapped out of her thoughts and reminded her, "Your phone is ringing."
Kurosawa Shiran glanced at the caller ID on the coffee table, clicked his tongue, and then hung up.
A hint of doubt flashed in Rina's eyes.
Kurosawa Shiran explained, "It might be that director. I told him the audition is next month, and I need to spend these few days with my girlfriend."
Rina: "..."
-
Kurosawa Shiran drove Rina to the police station in Yokohama. She originally wanted to stick close to Rina, but Rina seemed to have some concerns and didn't let her follow.
Ultimately, this was a serial murder case, which sounded very dangerous, so he planned to keep watch around her or protect her secretly.
But a sudden MMS message on his phone didn't want him to stay still.
He was photographed with Rina.
Kurosawa Shiran got off the train with her phone in hand, walked out of the station, and followed a woman in work clothes to a sparsely populated alley.
The woman standing on the bridge was wearing a black trench coat, cropped straight-leg pants, and nude high heels. Her blonde hair was tied in a low bun, with stray hairs pinned behind her ears. Her lips were a bright red, and her eyes had slightly upturned eyeliner. Her whole being exuded a flamboyant and sharp aura.
The woman gave the boy who was walking towards her a gentle smile, and then greeted him in a very familiar tone, "Long time no see, Shi Lan."
Kurosawa Shiran: "Sending someone to follow me is not a wise choice."
Indeed, after all, even the Mafia considers a tyrant a menace. The woman spoke with a hint of reproach: "But you don't answer my calls."
Kurosawa Tokiaki: "There's nothing between us to talk about."
Nakamura Yukio looked him up and down, and asked gently as always, "How have you been lately?"
Kurosawa Shiran remained silent.
Nakamura Yukio gave a wry smile and said, "It's just a simple expression of concern."
Kurosawa Shiran stared at her intently: "There's no need. If you're just here to spout nonsense, you'll have to pay the price next time."
Nakamura Yukio looked at him silently for a while, then asked in return, "Would a son kill his own mother?"
Kurosawa Shiran: "Nothing is impossible."
A flicker of shock crossed Nakamura Yukio's eyes, but she quickly concealed it, taking a silent deep breath. "You only care about that detective?"
Kurosawa Shiran lowered his eyes instantly, and a fierce aura emanated from him.
The atmosphere was stiff and cold. As his mother, Nakamura Yukio felt a pang of unease.
His thoughts were completely unfathomable; his personality and shrewdness were exactly like his father's.
This kind of person would never stop for a woman. Thinking of his father, Nakamura Yukio said with a sarcastic tone, "Don't be angry. I just came to kindly remind you not to let her interfere in this case."
Kurosawa Shiran sneered: "Even the mafia has things to fear?"
“I’m just worried that you’ll lose her. This case involves too many people; it’s not something she can control on her own. Your father still cares about you. If you want to go back, take her with you, and you can live a happy and fulfilling life,” Nakamura Yukio stepped forward, stood beside him, and looked up to meet his gaze. “Think it over carefully.”
Kurosawa Shiranui's face remained expressionless as he stared intently at her.
"Don't you want to have a meal with your mother?" Nakamura Yukio lowered her voice mysteriously. "We haven't seen each other for a long time."
Kurosawa Shiran glanced at him and said, "Okay."
-
When Rina entered the police station, she attracted a lot of attention. Sato didn't say anything, but led her directly into the office and explained the case in detail.
Rina glanced at the autopsy report, and then followed Miyako to the forensic lab.
Six of them had already turned into skeletons. Of the remaining three corpses, only one was still identifiable. Rina glanced at the other two unintentionally and felt like she couldn't even eat lunch.
Especially Miyako, who was eating pizza next to her with a blank expression while holding a box.
Rina glanced up at her, her lips twitching involuntarily: "Have all the families of these people come to identify the bodies?"
Sato: "Two people just arrived and are being taken into account."
“Let’s go check again later,” Rina walked to Munakata’s body, stared at the needle mark behind his ear for a while, “This one has it behind the ear, the one next to it has it on the neck.”
“Munekata is 1.82 meters tall,” Sato paused. “If the murderer wanted to successfully insert the syringe into the victim’s body, the other person must have been someone he knew, and it happened when the two of them sat down to eat.”
Rina: "In that case, wouldn't it be better to poison the food?"
Miyako thought of the wig, "Is it possible that the other person is a niche enthusiast? A man who likes men dressing as women?"
“Homosexuality,” Sato flipped open the file tucked under his arm. “I had the same suspicion, but according to the information provided by Munakata’s girlfriend, the two of them seemed quite affectionate.”
Miyako reminded them, "We've examined all three corpses down there, and none of them had that kind of experience."
Sato: "I just looked it up, and it seems to be divided into an upper and lower section..."
Rina glanced at him indifferently, "The other corpses were all dressed intact, but he was missing his suit jacket and had bruises from the fall."
Miyako was silent for a moment: "Could that hair be a clue he left behind?"
“That possibility cannot be ruled out.” Rina took off her gloves, threw them into the trash can next to her, and left the forensic room. Then she changed the subject, “I need to see the four people that Munakata contacted at the bar before he died one more time.”
Sato: "Send a message?"
“No,” Rina said, “we’re going to their house.”
As the two were talking, Sagara ran over with a document and handed it to Sato. "Senpai, the hotel that Momoyama Chiyo mentioned doesn't have a business license. The people staying there only register a fake name and have no other information."
If that's the case, then Momoyama Chiyo has no alibi.
Sato glanced at Rina and said helplessly, "Sakurai Kanna doesn't have an alibi either."
Rina didn't say anything.
Sagara opened his mouth, then asked in a low voice, "Senpai, who is this?"
Rina asked, "Did you prepare that criminal profiling report?"
The aura emanating from the other person was not gentle. Sagara paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's me."
Rina gave a cryptic smile and followed Sato into a room.
Across the table sat an elderly woman with gray hair and a very fashionable woman; they were mother and daughter.
Sato sat down, calmed the old man down, and then began a simple inquiry: "Ito Junzan, age 25, unmarried, worked as a salesperson at a real estate company before he disappeared."
The old man nodded, and his daughter beside him did not deny it.
Sato continued, "What happened to him before he disappeared?"
“Ever since my son went missing, I’ve been having trouble remembering things. Now, more than a year has passed, and there are some things that might have happened that I can’t remember,” the old man wiped away his tears and sighed deeply. “I only remember that he often drank with those unreliable friends and sometimes he would only come home once every two weeks. The day his father fell in the park, Xiao Xi called him all day, but no one answered. That’s when she remembered to call the police.”
Sato shifted his gaze to the woman. "What's his personality like?"
The woman replied, "He has a bit of a temper, but he wouldn't do anything illegal or criminal. He's timid and cowardly."
Rina leaned back in her chair, half her face hidden in her collar, neither asking questions nor making a sound.
Sato asked, "Does he have a girlfriend?"
The old man hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not too sure about that. There are some things he doesn't tell his family."
The woman said, "We dated, and he cheated on me. I saw him arguing with a woman in the parking lot downstairs from my company the other day."
During the argument, Rina keenly noticed this detail.
Sato took out a pen and paper and placed them in front of the woman: "Here's what you'll do, write down the names and phone numbers of his friends and girlfriend first, and I'll give you a phone number. Call me if you remember anything."
Rina suddenly spoke up: "Does he have a habit of wearing wigs?"
The woman paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and said, "No, he has a lot of hair. I've never seen him wear a wig."
After finishing writing, the woman asked him when his brother could take him away. Sato said to wait a little longer. After that, the four of them left the room. Sato looked at the backs of the mother and daughter and thought of Munakata's parents. He felt very uncomfortable.
Lina smelled the strong smell of smoke on him and gave him a disdainful look.
Sato coughed lightly and said in a low voice, "Don't tell Yukiho."
Rina: "Weren't we planning to have a baby?"
“This case,” Sato rubbed his head, his expression becoming very serious, “I’m not confident about it.”
Rina looked at him silently for a while, then gave him a mischievous smile. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You're not that smart anyway."
Sato's expression went blank for a moment, then she gritted her teeth in anger, "I haven't even asked you what happened between you and that brat, and now you're mocking me. I'm not smart, and you're not normal either. What are you thinking? If you're going to find a boyfriend, at least find someone reliable!"
Rina: "What's unreliable about it?"
Sato recalled the phone call from that morning and began to rant: "He's unreliable everywhere, and with all my years of experience in handling cases and my extensive knowledge of people, that kid is definitely not a good person. There's something very wrong with him."
Rina smiled, glanced at the window on the door, and said, "That junior officer has finished taking the statement."
After Sagara came out, he adjusted his glasses with his index finger and gave a serious report to the family members who had just identified the body.
"The person who came was his wife. The two met through a blind date and had been married for less than a year. She found out that her husband had been away on a business trip for half a month and had not replied to her messages during that time, so she called the police."
In this situation, it goes without saying that the couple's relationship is not good.
Sato knew this was a breakthrough point and was about to say something to Rina when a woman suddenly walked over from the opposite side.
Wearing a sharply tailored charcoal gray suit skirt, her long curly hair was neatly styled into a low bun, and a delicate diamond necklace adorned her neck. The hem of her skirt swayed gently with each step, her movements elegant yet capable, showcasing her feminine charm to the fullest.
Hanazawa Yu raised the corners of his eyes slightly and greeted her, "Rina, it's been a long time."
Rina smiled politely and shook hands with her, saying, "Long time no see."
Hanazawa Yu's smile was impeccable as she continued, "When did you get back?"
“Less than half a year,” Rina turned to the side and introduced her to Sato, “my college classmate.”
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