Chapter 9 Mysterious and Unpredictable
"Senior Date, assuming the kidnappers weren't after money, Yuuki was still kidnapped by Nakagawa. Furthermore, the mysterious Mr. Kurosawa mentioned in Ms. Horii's recorded conversation is also acquainted with Nakagawa. So, shouldn't the investigation start with Nakagawa?"
Ida nodded in agreement.
With a toothpick in his mouth, Date reasoned, "Think about it, who benefits from kidnapping Yuuki?"
"Hmm... Nakagawa is an employee of the Sakai Group. Kidnapping the boss's son wouldn't do him any good, would it?"
"But don't forget, Nakagawa used to work for the Ito Group. He was poached by Miyazaki two years ago."
"Does Senior Date mean that business rivals are engaging in malicious competition?"
"That's possible! Sakai Group's main business is general system software development, not game development. But Ito Group mainly focuses on games, and the explosive popularity of Dr.Virus dealt a significant blow to Ito Group!"
“Date-senpai, but Nakagawa is the head of Dr.Virus. How could he be willing to let his hard work go to waste? That seems to defy common sense…”
"Perhaps someone intercepted the deal halfway through. Nakagawa wanted money, while the Ito Group wanted to destroy their competitor. Does that make sense?"
"So, is Mr. Kurosawa the spy that Ito Shu secretly sent to get close to Nakagawa?"
Date shrugged and said, "This is all just my deduction. I haven't done any proper investigation into the Ito Group before."
Sato interjected, "The Ito Group was acquired by the Karasuma Group a year ago, and its stock price has soared since then!"
"Oh really?"
"Eh? Date-senpai is interested in stocks? But this stuff is too risky. If you're planning to get married in the future, you should probably do something more stable!" Takagi suggested from the side.
“Hmm, that makes sense…” Date replied absentmindedly.
He looked up abruptly and realized that the atmosphere was a bit off; everyone had the expression of a bystander watching the drama unfold.
"What's wrong?"
"Date-senpai, are you really getting married?" Sato asked tentatively.
"You little brat, Takagi! I said I'd take the bullet for you, and you really didn't hold back!" Date gave him a sharp rap on the head without any hesitation.
"I'm sorry, Date-senpai! I was wrong!" Takagi covered his head and ran away. "Date-senpai, I'll go investigate the Itō Group and that Mr. Kurosawa."
"Takagi, come back!" Date grabbed him. "I'll investigate this. You and Sato keep an eye on that safe."
"Okay, fine..."
After the two people left, Ida frowned as she looked at the warning symbol on her phone, a rare look of conflict on her face:
They actually won't let us investigate? That's a bit too much, Lord Cat Demon!
Ida sighed, but still obediently complied.
Upon closer reflection, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have nothing to do.
"What should I do? Oh right, how about we interrogate Miyazaki again!"
When Date arrived at the hospital, Miyazaki's condition seemed much better than when she last visited.
"Mr. Miyazaki, you mentioned last time that Ms. Horii made a phone call early Saturday morning. I'd like to confirm this with you again. Are you sure it was Ms. Horii who made the call?"
"She said it was her on the phone, and her voice sounds very similar. Officer Ida, is there a problem?"
"Does Mr. Miyazaki have Ms. Horii's contact information on his phone?"
"No, I don't even know how she got my phone number."
"Is it possible that someone impersonated Ms. Horii and made this call to you? Because you mentioned last time that you had never spoken to Horii alone before, so you probably don't recognize her voice, right?"
Miyazaki thought for a moment and said, "That's certainly possible. But why?"
"Regardless of the reason for now, let's test whether you can identify Ms. Horii's voice! Here are several recordings, all with the same content, but recorded by different women. After playing them, please tell me which one Ms. Horii spoke?"
The recording consists of five segments, all of which read: "Mr. Miyazaki, please go to the parking lot quickly! It will be too late if you wait any longer! Mr. Nakagawa has kidnapped Yuki, please go and save him!"
After listening, Miyazaki looked puzzled, shook his head and replied, "Officer Date, these recordings all sound very similar, I can't tell them apart."
"Do you think any of these people could be Horii?"
Yes, that's right.
"But these are all voices recorded by other female police officers; none of them are Horii's own."
"Huh? But Officer Date, I really did go there after receiving a call. I wasn't lying!"
Ida gestured for the other person to calm down and said, "I found out which taxi you took that day, and I also confirmed with the telecommunications operator's records that there was such a phone call. The time records match your statement..."
"So, Officer Ida, are you willing to believe me?"
Date evaded the question and continued, "Mr. Miyazaki, are you hiding something? As someone who has known Mr. Nakagawa for over 30 years, as someone who is usually close to Yuuki, and as President Sakai's most trusted secretary, are you really completely unaware of this kidnapping?"
Miyazaki was uneasy, his gaze darting away.
“Officer Date, how could I possibly kidnap Yuuki? I’ve been lying in the hospital for so long, you shouldn’t doubt me no matter what…”
Date said, enunciating each word clearly, "Mr. Miyazaki, I'm not asking if you kidnapped Yuuki. I'm asking if you knew about it but failed to report it, or if you concealed anything from the police?"
Seeing that the other party was still hesitant, Date continued, "Mr. Miyazaki, Mr. Nakagawa has passed away. No matter how unwilling you are to believe it, it's a fait accompli and there's no going back. But Yuuki is still alive. Don't you really want to save him?"
“Officer Date, I’ve known Taku for so long, over 30 years! Almost half a lifetime… You might think I’m naive and bad at judging people, but I trust my intuition. No matter how much Taku likes making money, he wouldn’t do it this way. He must have been instigated and manipulated by someone to go down this evil path!”
"Who does Mr. Miyazaki think that person is?"
Miyazaki lowered his head and remained silent.
Seeing this, Date asked, "Do you know someone named Kurosawa?"
"Kurosawa? I don't recognize him."
"Mr. Miyazaki, Yuuki has been missing for over ten days. At this point, is the little secret you're still keeping really more important than human life?"
Miyazaki was extremely conflicted. He looked around and secretly leaned close to Date's ear to ask, "Officer Date, if I tell you, could you please not take a note of it and not tell anyone? Especially not Yuuki!"
"Don't let Yuuki know? Why?" Date was taken aback.
"This is a secret, it concerns Yuuki's future, it's extremely important! I'm the only one in the whole family who knows the truth, even the president and his wife don't know the details. So you absolutely mustn't tell anyone!"
Seeing the nervous and uneasy look on Miyazaki's face, Date sensed that this was a very important secret, so he nodded in agreement.
Miyazaki leaned closer and revealed the shocking secret: "Actually... Yuuki, he's not their biological son."
Ida asked in surprise, "Adopt?"
No, adoption shouldn't be this stressful.
The Sakai family was extremely reluctant to let the police get involved in the matter...
"Mr. Miyazaki, do you know that child trafficking is a crime?!"
"Shh—Officer Date, keep your voice down!" Miyazaki was as anxious as an ant on a hot plate. "It's not what you think. After the president and his wife's eldest son died young, they couldn't have any more children. So the president considered adoption. He doesn't want the child to know about this when they grow up. Therefore, he requires the child to be young enough to not remember anything, and their blood type, appearance, and other conditions must also meet certain criteria. But after looking at many children, none of them are quite suitable..."
"And then? Who are Yuuki's biological parents?"
“His biological parents are dead, and Yuuki is an orphan.”
Where did you find him?
"I didn't find it..."
"So you bought it?"
"No, no, well, how should I put it? Someone picked him up, and since he didn't want to raise him, he gave him to me without charging me much money. When I first met Yuuki, the child was sick and thin. I took care of him for a while until he gained some weight before giving him to the president, saying that I had picked him up from outside."
"Mr. Miyazaki, what do you think this has to do with the kidnapping case?"
"Later, I often thought about this. Officer Ida, a normal person who finds a child would definitely think about finding the parents, or at the very least, take the child to the police station or an orphanage, right? How could it be such a coincidence that I ran into one? Especially after my wife died in childbirth, I felt more and more uneasy. Do you think I was punished by heaven for stealing someone else's child?"
“Mr. Miyazaki, your wife is innocent, and you didn’t intentionally break up anyone’s family. To call it divine retribution… isn’t that a bit much?”
“Officer Date, but I still have a bad feeling about this! Yuuki has a birthmark on his left foot. He injured his leg six months ago and stayed in the hospital for a month. Do you think someone might have seen it then and told his biological parents?”
"Since they are their biological parents, why don't they go to their door directly or call the police?"
"President Sakai would definitely not give them to them. He has always treated Yuuki like his own son. Besides, the fact that someone would think of kidnapping suggests that Yuuki's biological parents aren't exactly respectable people. They want to take their son back and then extort money from him..."
"For example, the kind of shady business that Nakagawa was involved in?"
"Officer Date, is that possible?"
"This is indeed a very valuable clue."
"Mr. Miyazaki, do you remember what the person who gave you the child looked like?"
"I don't remember clearly. He had dark skin and seemed to be a fisherman. I remember he said he found Yuuki at the dock, and there was no note or anything like that in the swaddling clothes."
"Thank you! I will investigate and keep it a secret."
However, the scope of this secrecy isn't limited to just between you and me.
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